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THE   SERMONS  V^, 


JUL  13  188 


OF 


^S^2. 


HENRY  WARD  BEECHER, 

IN 

Plymouth  Church,  Brooklyn, 

FROM     VERBATIM     REPORTS     BY     T.    J.     ELLINWOOD, 

"PLYMOUTH    PULPIT," 

SEVENTH    SERIES: 

SEPTEMBER,  1871— MARCH,  1872. 


NEW-YORK  : 
J.    B.    FORD    &    COMPANY. 

1873. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1872, 

BY   J.   B.   FORD    <fe    CO., 

in  the  Office  of  tlie  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


University  Press:  Welch,  Bigelow,  &  Co., 
Cambridge 


CONTENTS. 


Page 

I.  The    Centkal    Principle    of    Character     (Matt. 

xix.  22)  7  : 

Lesson:  Mark  x.,  13-31.     *HrMNS  :  947,  878,  567.  }, 

II.  Unprofitable  Servants  (Luke  xvii.  10)  .        .        .       25  ' 

Lesson  :  Matt,  vii.,  13.    Hymns  :  255,  .531,  899. 

III.  The  Reward  of  Loving  (Rom.  viii.  28)  .        .         .       43 

Lesson  :  Rom.  viii. 

XlV.  The  Cause  and  Cure  of  Corruption  in  Public 

Affairs  (Prov.  ii.  -2-22) 61 

Lesson:  Luke  xiii.,  1-17.    Hymns  :  805,  947,  1004. 

V.  Working  with  God  (1  Cor.  iii.  9)  ...       79 

Lesson  :  1  Cor.  iii.     Hymns  ;  269,  1235,  1251.  '. 

VI.  Lessons  from  the  Great  Chicago  Fire  (Psalms  \ 

xxxvi.  6)  ........       99  j 

Lesson  :  Joel  i.    Hymns  :  173,  93,  1011.  -     "' 

VII.  Sovereignty    and    Permanence  of  Love   (1   Cor. 

xiii.  13) 117 

Lesson:  1  Cor.  xiii.    Hymns:  287,  381,  "  Shining  Shore." 

VIII.  Physical    Hindrances  in    Spiritual    Life    (Matt. 

xxvi.  41) 137j 

Lesson  :  1  Thess.  1-24.    Hymns  :  180,  503,  898.  jf 

IX.    PtELATIONS  OF  PHYSICAL  CAUSES  TO  SPIRITUAL  STATES 

(Matt.  xxvi.  41) 157 

Lesson  :  Rom.  xiv.    Hymns  :  40,  865.  I' 

X.  Redemption  of  the  Ballot.    ....  175 1 

.     Lesson  :  1  Kings  xviii.,  19-45,  and  xix.,  1-4.    Hymns  :  2,  1244,  1023.  I 

XL  The  Unity  of  Man  (Acts.  xvii.  26,  27)         .         .     195  I 

Lesson  :  Acts  xvii.    Hymns  :  212,  463,  622. 

XII.  The  Fruit  of  the  Spirit  (Gal.  v.  22,  23)        .        .     217  i 

Lesson:  Rom.  xii.    Hymns:  73,907,  1263.  '! 

XIII.  Measurements  of  Manhood  (Rom.  xii.  3)       .        .     235  ; 

Lesson  :  Psalms  cxlvii.     Hymns  :  199,  219,  907.  i 

♦Plymouth  Collection. 


IV 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 

\/ ' XVIII. 


N 


XIX. 
XX. 

XXI. 

XXII. 

XXIII. 

XXIV. 
XXV. 

iSLXvi. 


CONTENTS. 

The  Inspiration  of  Scripture  (2  Tim.  iii.  14-17) 

Lesson:  2  Tim.  il.,  23-26;  iii.    *Hymns:  130,  688,  74. 

Practical  Ethics  for  the  Young  (Matt.  xiii.  52) 

Lesson  :  Eccl.  xii.    Hymns  :  367,  816,  1294. 

The  New  Incarnation  (John  i.  14)       . 

Lesson  :  Matt.  ii.    Hymns  :  228,  206,  203. 

The  Worth  of  Suffering  (Heb,  xii.)  . 

Lesson  :  Heb.  xii.    Hymns  :  666,  273,  725. 

God's  Character  Viewed  Through  Man's  Higher 
Nature  (Luke  xi.  13) 

Lesson  :  Lulie  i.,  14.    Hymns  :  132,  865. 

Other  Men's  Consciences  (1  Cor.  x.  29) 

Lesson  :  1  Cor.  viii.    Hymns  :  187,  263,  1262. 

The  True  Law  of  the  Household   (Luke  xiv, 
12-14) 

Lesson  :  Luke  xiv.  1-24.    Hymns  :  263,  185,  898. 

Other  Men's  Failings  (Gal.  vi.  2) 

Lesson  :  Rom.  xiv.,  1-13.    Hymns  :  212,  531,  582. 

Waiting  Upon  God  (Jas.  v.  7,  8) 

Lesson  :  Psalm  xxxvii.  1-22.    Hymns  :  174,  813,  725. 

Do  the  Scriptures  Forbid  Women  to  Preach 
(1  Cor.  xiv.  34,  35) 

Lesson  :  1  Sam.  ii.,  1-11.    Hymns  :  737,  306,  1294. 

God  First  (Matt.  viii.  19-22) 

Lesson  :  2  Cor.  iv.,  6-18  ;  v.,  1-5.    Hymns  :  40,  365,  346. 

The  Burning  of  the  Books  (Acts  xix.  11-13) 

Lesson  :  Psalm  ii.    Hymns  :  278,  249,  690. 

Prayer  for  Others  (1  Tim.  ii.  1,  2)      . 

Lesson  :  John  xvii.    Hymns  :  255,  127. 

♦Pltmouth  Collection. 


Pagb 

251 
273 
295 
313 

333 
351 

373 
393 
415 

433 
453 
471 
489 


I. 

The  Central  Principle  of 

Character 


INVOCATION. 

Our  Father,  wilt  tlioii  smile  upon  us  this  morning,  that  our  hearts  may 
know  thine  indwelling  warmth,  I'eeling  that  thou  dost  remember  us,  thr:t 
thou  art,  and  that  we  are  thy  children.  Thou  canst  make  thine  own  to  know 
thy  presence.  Thou  canst  awaken  life  even  in  those  that  have  never  knovvTi 
the  higher  life.  And  we  pray  for  that  divine  influence,  that  quickening  of  the 
understanding,  that  insight  by  whioh  we  shall  discern  thee,  and  cry  out  in 
joy,  Abba,  Father!  Bless  the  service  of  instruction,  our  worship,  our  fellow- 
ship, our  rejoicings  together,  and  all  our  thought  and  hope  this  day,  through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  and  Saviour.  Amen. 
1. 


/TYOIDOTOSHJ, 


THE  CENTRAL 
PRIICIPLE   OF   CHARACTER. 


"  But  when  the  young  man  heard  that  saying,  he  went  away  sorrowful ; 
for  he  had  great  possessions." — Matt.  XIX.  23. 


There  Is  no  greater  contrast  than  that  which  exists  in  the  treat- 
ment accorded  by  our  Saviour  to  different  persons  who  a23proached 
him.  Nor,  if  we  look  on  the  outside,  docs  it  seem  possible  to  deter- 
mine why  he  should  liave  made  such  a  difference.  Certainly,  there 
is  every  reason  why  we  should  have  expected  that  he  would  have 
received  this  young  man  far  more  encouragingly  than  he  would  such 
a  one  as  the  publican  Zacheus,  who  was  confirmed  in  habit  by 
many  years,  and  was  not  of  a  good  reputation  among  his  own  kind. 
He  held  himself,  in  some  sense,  aloof,  drawn  rather  by  curiosity, 
apparently,  than  by  aspiration.  And  yet,  Christ  came  to  him, 
called  him  down  to  his  side,  invited  him  to  his  dwelling,  and  heard 
his  profession  of  faith,  declaring  that  salvation  had  come  to  that 
house,  thus  making  an  overture  all  the  way  through. 

The  young  man  Avas  amiable,  and  he  was  attracted,  it  is  declared 
that  way.  The  Saviour  looked  upon  him.  And  that  does  not  mean 
that  he  merely  cast  his  eye  toAvard  him,  but  that  he  gave  him  one 
of  those  long,  fond,  gazing  looks  which  indicate  affection.  He  looked 
lovingly  and  long  upon  him.  And  yet,  he  drove  him  aAvay — that  is 
he  prescribed  such  conditions  as  amounted  to  that.  And  it  seems 
very  strange  that  this  one  should  not  have  been  encouraged,  since 
Christ  had  encouraged  Zacheus.  Why  Avas  not  this  young  man,  Avho 
came  to  Christ  Avith  such  alacrity  that  he  ran,  and  Avho  asked  the 
very  question  of  all  questions,  "  Good  Master,  Avhat  shall  I  do  to  in- 
herit eternal  life?"  andAvho,  upon  further  conversation,  declared  that 
this  had  been  the  object  of  his  research  from  the  beginning,  and  tliat 
according  to  the  light  and  the  teaching  Avhich  he  had  had,  he  liad  all 

StTNDAY  Morning,  Jan.  30,  1871.     Lesson  :  Makk.  X.  13-3L    Hymns  (Plymouth 

CoUcction)  :  Nos.  947, 878,  567.  j'uiuuiu 


8  THE  CENTRAL  PBINCIPLE  OF  CHABA  CIEB. 

his  life  long  sought  to  keep  the  commandments — why  was  he  not  en- 
couraged ?  Why  should  the  Loi'd  have  laid  this  hard  condition  on 
him  ;  "  Confiscate  everything  you  have,  and  then  follow  me"  ? 

You  cannot  solve  this  question  without  solving,  also,  a  very  pro- 
found question  of  mental  philosophy  ;  and  it  is  a  question  of  such 
universal  reach  and  significance,  that  it  will  constitute  the  body  of 
my  discourse  this  morning. 

\  This  young  man  was  amiable,  I  have  said.  His  dispositions  were 
admirable.  But  it  was  evident  that  he  had  laid  the  foundation  of 
his  life  and  character  in  his  own  physical  well-being.  He  had  not 
alone  an  estate,  but  great  possessions  ;  and  it  is  very  plain  that  he 
stood  on  these.  That  is  to  say,  these  were  to  him  the  foundation 
qualities  of  excellence.  Because,  the  moment  the  question  came, 
"  Which  prefer  you  to  have,  spiritual  excellence  or  these  temporal- 
ities ?"  which  admitted  of  not  an  hour's  or  a  moment's  debate  ;  the 
moment  the  question  presented  itself  to  him,  *'  Which  is  better  for 
you,  to  forsake  estate  or  spiritual  possessions  ?"  without  any  argu- 
ment or  reply  at  all,  he  chose  his  estate.  He  went  away  sad.  The 
thing  came  home  to  him  vividly.  He  had  asked  the  question, 
"  What  shall  I  do  to  inherit  eternal  life  ?"  and  he  was  an  excellent 
young  man ;  but,  after  all,  his  root  Avas  in  his  possessions.  There  was 
where  he  had  centered  his  interest.  He  meant  to  have  a  great  deal 
more  than  the  riches  which  he  had  accumulated ;  but  he  meant  that 
these  should  be  the  foundation  of  all  other  things — that  other  things 
should  be  so  much  in  addition.  But  when  Christ,  instead  of  taking 
him  at  his  word,  instead  of  responding  to  his  statement,  that  he 
already  had  so  much  good,  and  to  his  inquiry  as  to  how  he  should 
get  more,  made  a  division,  and  said,  "  Here  are  physical  and  here  are 
spiritual  excellencies  :  take  your  choice  ;  give  up  one  or  the  other  ; 
which  will  you  have  ?" — then  he  saw,  as  with  a  beam  of  light,  between 
the  one  and  the  other  side,  and  he  chose  the  physical,  the  temporal. 
He  was  not  less  amiable  ;  but  you  will  observe  that  the  key-note  of 
his  character  had  been  revealed.  He  had  laid  the  foundation  of  his 
life  in  physical  well-being  ;  and  when  he  was  called  to  take  some- 
thing higher,  he  refused  it,  and  went  back  to  that  as  to  the  dominant 
center  of  his  life. 

Not  only  was  this  young  man  willing  to  have  something  else, 
but,  we  cannot  but  think,  he  felt  the  genuine  want  of  higher  quali- 
ties in  a  limited  degree.  Even  bad  men  have  strong  impulses  to- 
ward good.  They  admire  good  things.  And  so,  a  man  may  be  sel- 
fish in  a  thousand  ways — predominantly  selfish — -and  have  a  very 
genuine  admiration  of  benevolence.  Not  only  that,  a  selfish  man, 
I  had  almost  said  a  man  whose  purposes  are  selfish,  may  be  struck 


THU  CENTBAL  PRINCIPLE  OF  CHA  BA  CTEB.  9 

with  benevolence.  There  is  a  place  where  benevolence  will  serve 
selfishness.  I  have  seen  men  who  were  benevolent  not  only  because 
the  impulse  was  pleasant  to  them,  but  because,  as  they  said,  they 
saw  clearly  that  it  would  work  for  their  benefit  to  be  50.  But  the 
fact  that  it  was  pleasant  to  them  did  not  change  the  character  of 
the  selfishness  that  was  in  them. 

Here  was  a  young  man  who  had  a  place  which  satisfied  his  am- 
bition. As  the  possessor  of  a  great  territory,  he  had  that  kind  of 
position  in  the  neighborhood  where  he  belonged  which  gratified  his 
pride  and  vanity.  He  had  that  control  and  that  indulgence  which 
came  from  an  unlimited  command  of  means  according  to  the  nation 
and  the  age  in  which  he  was  living.  And  this  was  the  substructux-e 
of  his  life.  Being  possessed  of  all  that  could  gratify  his  senses,  he 
did  not  mean  to  be  over-indulgent  in  it,  but  he  did  not  want  to  give 
it  up.  Being  in  this  position,  he  wanted,  not  to  exchange  it  for  any- 
thing else,  but  simply  to  have  sprouting  up  around  about  him,  over- 
arching him,  and  embowering  him,  flowers  of  spiritual  and  poetical 
aspirations,  and  all  manner  of  divine  feelings,  so  that  he  should  have 
both  things — his  feet  rooted  in  this  earth,  and  his  head  placed  in  the 
other  life.  He  wanted  to  take  this  world  first,  and  then  superadd 
the  kingdom  of  God  as  a  polish  to  it.  He  wanted  all  spiritual  ex- 
cellence to  sit,  as  it  were,  in  the  clouds  above  him,  like  an  orchestra, 
and  play  sweet  music  to  him,  while  he  sat  below,  on  a  level  with  the 
earth,  sensuous,  and  indulging  himself  selfishly. 

It  is  said  that  these  things  are  not  reconcilable.  They  may  not 
be  reconcilable,  but  they  are  universal.  Men  have  wanted,  in  every 
age,  to  have  both  worlds — a  thing  which  Christ  said  was  impossible, 
"  Ye  cannot  serve  God  and  mammon." 

Our  Saviour  taught  this  young  man  that  the  spiritual  life  must 
supplant  the  physical  life.  The  two  can  co-exist ;  but  the  spiritual 
life  must  be  in  the  ascendency,  and  must  control  the  lower  physical 
life.  Our  Saviour  taught  all  the  way  through  his  life  that  spii'itu- 
ality  cannot  be  simply  the  complement  of  secularity.  It  cannot  be 
a  parasite  growing  on  the  boughs  of  worldly  prosperity.  If  a  man 
is  to  have  the  kingdom  of  God,  he  must  make  that  first,  and  that 
must  be  supreme.  Or,  to  change  it  to  a  more  psychological  state- 
ment, if  a  man  is  to  be  truly  a  Christian,  his  spiritual  nature  must 
predominate  and  bear  rule  over  everything  else  that  is  in  him.  You 
cannot  have  the  temporal,  lower  nature  strongest,  and  then  expect 
the  spiritual  nature  to  please  it  and  play  down  to  it.  And  yet,  that 
is  what  men  are  attempting  to  bring  about  everywhere.  Every 
person  has  some  dominant  point.  There  is  no  uncentcred  character 
anywhere.  There  is  a  point  in  every  man's  character  which  rules, 
and  to  which  everything  is  brought  for  comparison  and  settlement. 


1 0  TEE  CENTRAL  PBINGIPLE  OF  CHAM  A  CTEE. 

This  point  often  seems  to  shift  and  change ;  but,  after  all,  there  is 
some  point  in  a  man's  character  which  you  may  say  is  the  dominant 
point,  and  before  which  all  things  above  it  and  below  it  have  to 
come  into  judgment.  It  is  this  that 'gives  character  to  a  man,  and 
determines  whether  he  is  high  or  low,  good  or  bad.  And  it  may  be 
said,  making  the  largest  generalization,  that  if  you  take  a  man  and 
strike  a  kind  of  equatorial  line  through  his  character,  all  below  a 
given  point  is  selfish.  And  if  the  center  of  a  man's  character  is  be- 
low that  point,  it  may  be  that  he  is  not  selfish  on  this,  that  or  the 
other  subject ;  but  characteristically  and  generically  he  is  selfish. 
Whereas,  if  the  center,  the  true  point  of  motive-power  and  control, 
is  above  that  line,  in  a  man,  his  character  is  benevolent  and  spiritual; 
and  he  comes  into  the  general  category 'of  Christian  men.  So  that 
the  fact  that  the  controlling  element  in  a  man's  mind  is  above  or 
below  a  certain  point,  determines  whether  he  is  good  or  bad; 
v/hether  he  is  Christian  or  natural. 

A  benevolent  center,  I  remark,  is  quite  consistent  with  some 
shades  of  selfishness  and  pride  and  evil.  That  is  to  say,  a  man 
whose  nature  is  centered  in  benevolence  may  nevertheless  be  so  far 
under  the  controlling  influence  below,  that  his  benevolent  impulses 
will  find  themselves  mixed  up  with  derivative  selfish  feelings.  Be- 
cause a  man's  character  is  centered  in  benevolence  it  does  not  fol- 
low that  he  is  never  proud  or  selfish  or  worldly;  but  if  he  is 
addicted  to  selfishness  or  pride  or  worldliness,  they  are  casual. 
They  are  against  the  tendency  of  his  nature.  They  are  contrary  to 
his  prevailing  wish.  They  are  always  brought  into  judgment  be- 
fore his  real  spiritual  purpose.  He  knows  all  the  time  which  way 
his  soul  points,  and  which  Avay  he  means  to  have  it  point.  lie  has 
an  aspiration  and  an  ideal,  and  he  knows  it  perfectly  well,  and  he 
appeals  to  God  as  one  who  knows  that  the  drift  and  purpose  of  his 
life  are  benevolent,  pure,  spiritual.  If,  contrary  to  this,  he  drops 
here,  or  drops  there,-  into  incidental  selfishness  and  sins,  still  he 
checks  them  and  condemns  them.  So  that  a  man  may  be  a  truly 
benevolent  man,  though  he  is  not  perfectly  consistent  in  carrying 
out  the  spirit  of  benevolence  in  all  its  details  and  principles. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  man  may  have  a  character  centered  in 
selfishness,  and  yet  tiiere  may  be  reaching  out  from  that  center  a 
thousand  amiable  feelings  and  graces,  a  thousand  excellencies,  which 
do  not  shift  the  center.  They  do  not  change  the_dominant  influ- 
ences in  the  mind.  The  man  has  selfishness  at  the  center  still,  but 
there  are  vines  growing  over  it.  The  selfishness  has  other  and  bet- 
tor traits  associated  with  it ;  but  so  far  as  the  dynasty  is  concerned, 
that  is  not  changed.  The  tyranny  is  there  yet,  though  the  scepter 
is  wreathed  with  flowers. 


TEE  CENTRAL  PBINCIPLE  OF  CEA BA CTEB.  1 1 

I  remember  watching,  last  summer,  spiders  that  burrowed  in  the 
crevices  of  a  trellis  Avhere  the  wind  had  borne  much  dust.  I  noticed 
that  the  hole  where  they  lay  lurking  looked  dark  and  ugly.  I  also 
noticed,  as  I  sat  one  day  watching,  a  vagrant  spider  take  a  morning 
glory,  in  full  blossom,  and  spin  his  web  over  the  mouth  of  it.  And 
there  never  was  a  prettier  nest  in  this  Avorld — a  nest  more  richly 
gemmed  with  beauty — than  his  was.  But,  after  all,  it  was  the  same 
spider,  whether  he  lay  in  the  dark  hole  at  the  corner  of  the  trellis, 
or  in  the  blossom  of  that  exquisite  flower. 

Now,  selfishness  may  weave  its  web  in  the  dusky  places,  or  in  ' 
the  hideous-looking  recesses  of  a  man's  disposition,   or  about  the 
the  mouths  of  graces  and  sweet  aifcctions ;  but  it  is  the  same  selfish- 
ness after  all.     The  place  is  changed,  and  the  appearance  of  the  sur- 
roundings is  changed,  but  the  spider  is  not  changed. 

So,  the  point  to  be  remembered  is,  that  in  every  man  there  is  a 
center  around  about  which  his  life  really  swings.  There  is  a  balance- 
point,  and  it  preponderates  one  way  or  the  other.  The  great  influ- 
ences of  life  weigh  down  toward  the  flesh,  or  else  they  go  toward 
the  spiritual.  You  may  change  the  circumstances  of  a  man's  life, 
and  it  may  be  modified  one  way  or  the  other ;  but  after  all  there  is  a 
predominant  force  in  his  character,  and  that  controls  all  the  minor 
forces. 

Again,  a  selfish-centered  man,  clothing  himself  with  all  manner 
of  Christian  graces  and  aspirations,is  not  to  be  condemned  as  if  these 
graces  and  aspirations  were  of  no  account.  Here  is  a  point  where 
ministers  have  trouble  in  preaching  to  men.  When  we  see  men  em- 
bowered under  external  moralities,  and  attempt  to  teach  that  moral- 
ity is  not  enough,  the  impression  arises  that  we  undervalue  morals. , 
I  do  not  undervalue  morals  any  moi"e  than  the  tax-collector  under- 
values a  hundred  dollars,  when  I  go  to  pay  my  taxes,  and  offer  him 
that  amount,  when  my  bill  is  five  hundred.  He  says,  "  I  will  not 
take  it.  It  is  not  enough."  "  He  does  not  despise  the  hundred  dol- 
lars. He  merely  says,  "  You  must  put  more  with  it."  And  I  do 
not  despise  morality  because  I  say  that  it  does  not  rise  hio-h  enouo-h. 
It  is  good  as  far  up  as  it  goes.  So  is  a  grape-vine  good  as  far  up  as  [ 
it  goes,  when  it  is  two  or  three  feet  liigh ;  but  it  does  not  arrive  at  ' 
what  it  was  planted  for  until  it  reaches  that  point  where  it  has  blos- 
soms and  clusters.  It  is  the  cluster  that  determines  its  value. 
And  in  regard  to  excellencies,  a  man  may  be  an  intensely  selfish- 
centered  man,  almost  all  his  inspirations  may  be  from  this  world, 
the  dominant  influence  in  him  may  always  sway  him,  he' may  live 
for  the  sight  of  his  eye,  and  the  hearing  of  his  ear,  and  the  grat'ifica- 
tion  of  his  senses ;  and  yet  ho  may  have  good  qualities,  desirable 


1 2  TEE  CEN  TEAL  PBINGIPLE  OF  GEAR  A  CTEB. 

traits,  in  his  disposition.  A  man  may  love  poetry  and  music,  and 
have  generous  impulses  which  draw  him  toward  a  higher  range  of 
life ;  but  after  all,  it  is  only  a  polished  form  of  selfishness,  or  self- 
ness,  that  is  manifesting  itself  in  him.  It  is  self  that  is  at  the 
bottom. 

I  do  not  say  that  it  is  not  better  that  a  man  should  be  refinedly 
selfish  than  coarsely  selfish.  It  is  a  great  deal  better.  It  is  better 
that  men  should  be  intellectually  selfish  than  coarsely  selfish.  It 
makes  social  intercourse  easier.  It  makes  it  easier  for  men  to  get 
along  with  each  other.  And  if  the  center  of  a  man's  disposition  is 
selfish,  and  at  the  same  time  he  has  aspirations  and  refinements  and 
generosities  and  kindnesses,  I  do  not  say  that  he  is  no  better  for 
having  these  things:  I  say  that  as  a  member  of  society  he  is  a  gi-eat 
deal  better.  He  energizes  society.  He  adds  something  to  those 
elements  which  take  away  attrition  and  harshness  and  rudeness  from 
society.  B.ut  he  is  not  inwardly  better ;  for  nothing  makes  a  man 
better  within  until  the  center  of  his  life  and  character  are  changed. 
Every  blossom  that  you  put  upon  a  man  who  is  radically  selfish, 
and  is  going  to  be  selfish,  the  worse  you  make  it  for  him.  The  pret- 
tier you  make  a  man's  selfishness,  the  more  music  there  is  that  ac- 
companies it,  the  more  flowers  there  are  that  decorate  it,  the  more 
balm  there  is  along  with  it,  the  more  sunlight  there  is  shed  upon  it, 
the  more  it  is  painted  with  glowing  colors,  the  better  is  it  for  society ; 
but  the  worse  it  is  for  him,  because  these  things  delude ;  because 
they  are  satisfying;  because  they  hide  the  mischief;  because  they 
do  not  let  him  see  what  an  unforgivable  and  what  a  demoralizing 
quality  selfishness  is. 

Whatever  change,  therefore,  comes  upon  a  man,  must  not  be  in 
the  nature  of  polish.  It  must  not  consist  of  the  addition  of  this  little 
grace,  or  that  little  grace.  All  changes  must  be  what  our  Master 
taught  us  that  they  must  be. 

See  how  beautiful  the  life  of  Christ  was.  See  how  much  he  en- 
joyed whatever  was  beautiful  in  social  life.  See  how  he  entered  into 
the  festivities  at  Cana  of  Galilee.  See  how  he  met  on  intimate  terms 
the  brothers  and  sisters  at  Bethany.  See  how  he  was  a  man  among 
men.  See  how  he  came  to  teach  men  in  respect  to  their  spiritual 
natures.  And  see  how  he  struck  through  all  these  things  Avhen  he 
said, 

"  Except  a  man  be  born  again,  he  cannot  see  the  kingrlom  of  God."  -"  Ex- 
cept ye  be  converted,  and  become  as  little  children,  ye  shall  not  enter  the 
kingdom  of  heaven." 

There  must  be  a  fundamental  change.  What  is  that  change  ?  It 
does  not  consist  in  doing  a  few  more  things,  or  in  adding  a  few  more 
e"5cellencies,  as  the  young  man  thought  it  did.   "  Good  Master,  what 


THE  CENTRAL  PRINCIPLE  OF  CEA  RA  GTER,  1 3 

new  thing  shall  I  do  ?  What  new  prayer  shall  I  say  ?  What  extra 
morality  shall  I  take  on  ?  What  other  charities  and  bounties  shall 
I  bestow  for  man's  relief  ?  I  should  be  glad  to  add  to  my  stock  of 
excellencies."  That  was  the  purport  of  the  young  man's  inquiry. 
The  Master  said  to  him  in  substance,  "  Your  whole  character  is 
wrapped  up  in  your  position.  You  are  rich,  you  have  large  estates, 
and  you  know  it,  and  you  stand  centered  in  them.  And  now,  with 
this  center,  you  want  to  add  various  excellencies.  Go  sell  all  these, 
give  them  away,  and  take  up  your  cross  and  follow  me."  That 
brought  him  to  a  decision  instantly.  Choosing  betAveen  the  higher 
and  the  lower,  he  took  the  lower,  and  went  away  sad  and  grieved. 
And  Christ  everywhere  brought  men  to  this  choice.  If  you  are  to 
be  Christians,  Christianity  does  not  mean  having  some  few  things 
on  a  selfish  basis.  You  must  change  the  foundation  of  your  life. 
You  must  pass  over  from  the  animal,  up  from  the  lower,  away  from 
the  predominantly  self-seeking  life,  that  is  in  all  of  us  by  nature. 
You  must  come  into  the  kingdom  of  God,  which  is  the  kingdom  of 
love.  Beneficent  love,  love  for  others,  and  not  for  yourself,  must  be 
the  predominant,  the  governing  tendency. 

Every  man  can  tell  very  quick  which  is  the  governing  motive 
with  him  in  life.  "  Everywhere  this  is  the  condition  of  salvation  ac- 
cording to  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  We  are  to  pass  from  the  pre- 
dominance of  selfishness  in  any  and  all  its  forms,  and  enter  into  that 
kingdom  in  which  true  benevolence  is  the  law  of  life  and  li2:ht.  Let 
us  illustrate  how  life  is  in  this  matter. 

I  behold  a  great  many  men  who  are  living  lives  of  sensuousness. 
I  am  not  now  speaking  of  the  irreligious  ;  I  am  not  speaking  of  the 
outbreaking  wicked ;  I  am  speaking  simply  of  those  who  are  con- 
sidered to  be  respectable,  moral  and  excellent  persons.  There  are  a 
great  many  who  ai-e  satisfied  with  themselves,  and  who  have  a  hope 
that  they  shall  be  saved  by  and  by,  although  if  you  were  to  make 
inquisition  into  their  natural  life,  you  would  see  that  they  were  liv- 
ing with  their  whole  vital  force  centered  in  some  form  of  sensuous 
enjoyment — that  is,  enjoyment  of  the  senses  and  of  the  flesh.  It  may 
not  be  in  the  violation  of  custom  or  law.  It  may  not  be  in  immod- 
erate eating  and  drinking.  It  may  not  be  in  ovei--sleeping  or  over- 
working. It  may  constitute  the  thing  on  which  the  man's  life  is 
centered. 

I  can  conceive  of  one  whose  body  is  exquisitely  formed ;  to  whom 
health  is  a  matter  of  luxury ;  who  is  full  of  all  the  enjoyment  which 
comes  from  the  eye,  and  from  the  hands,  and  from  the  tongue,  and 
from  the  ear,  and  from  those  sweet  solaces  of  society  which  do  not 
require  too  much  sentiment  and  too  much  sacrifice  ;  but  who  never 


1 4  THE  CENTRAL  PBINCIPLE  OF  CRAB  A  CTEB. 

rose  hifjher  than  elegance  of  the  flesh,  and  all  the  sweet  amenities  of 
a  bodily  life  kept  pure  and  in  tune  with  nature.  I  see  niultitude* 
of  persons  who  live  in  about  this  round  of  existence.  And  if  you 
take  a  census  of  the  opinions  respecting  them,  you  will  find  that 
they  are  not  considered  as  evil-doers,  nor  specially  as  well-doers,  but 
as  good  livers.  It  is  said  that  they  are  happy,  joyful,  good  neigh- 
bors. They  are  pleasant  men  to  go  a-fishing  with,  and  to  go  on  a 
picnic  with.  They  are  pleasant  men  to  seek  temporary  enjoyment 
with.  They  neither  lie,  nor  steal,  nor  swear,  nor  get  drunk.  They ' 
are  not  men  that  slander.  They  are  not  envioits.  They  are  not 
jealous.  I  could  go  through  with  a  long  list  of  negatives  concern- 
ing them ;  and  if  negatives  were  virtues,  how  virtuous  they  would 
be !  But,  after  all,  the  orb  of  their  life  rises  and  sets  in  a  lower 
sphere. 

To  be  happy  within  the  reach  of  a  sense,  living  every  day  for 
that  day,  and  every  hour  for  that  hour ;  to  be  happy  by  having 
everything  around  about  one  so  regulated  as  to  make  him  comfort- 
able and  cheerful — this  is  living  in  a  small  range  of  happiness. 

I  am  speaking  of  sensuous  life  in  its  most  respectable  form ;  and 
if  this  be  wanting,  how  much  more  is  that  life  wanting  which  breaks 
out  in  salacious  and  degrading  desires !  I  take  the  very  top  and 
best,  the  cream,  of  sensuous  lives  ;  and  I  say  that  the  whole  of  such 
a  life  is  centered  in  sensuous  indulgence  ;  in  making  one's  self  happy 
without  regard  to  the  future  ;  without  regard  to  the  claims  of  God 
and  the  claims  of  the  Avhole  race  of  men ;  without  any  high  idea  of 
manhood ;  without  any  other  nobility  than  simply  that  of  being  a 
musical  chord  which  is  forever  being  played  on.  The  eye  of  men 
■who  live  such  a  life  is  a  harp ;  their  stomach  is  a  harp  ;  and  when- 
ever it  is  touched,  they  want  it  to  be  so  touched  that  it  shall  respond 
sweet  music.  A  dulcet  way  of  living  is  their  ideal  of  life.  They 
will  go  to  church,  and  hear  church-music,  and  go  away  and  say, 
"  Serious  things  are  very  important.  I  am  living  very  happy ;  but 
then  I  would  not  be  understood  as  not  believing  in  religion.  I 
never  hear  those  solemn  organ  antliems,  and  those  sermons,  that  I 
do  not  feel  that  religion  is  very  important."  But  it  does  not  change 
the  center  of  their  nature.  They  are  living  for  self.  I  do  not  say 
that  they  are  criminal,  or  immoral,  or  beastly  :  I  only  say  that  they 
are  self-seekers ;  that  the  end  and  aim  of  their  life  and  being  is  self. 
And  Christ  says  that  except  a  man  he  horn  again  he  cannot  see  the 
kmgdo7n  of  God. 

I  behold  a  great  many  men  in  life  who  have  sought,  and  rightly 
sought,  riches,  and  have  earned  them,  and  held  them,  and  used 
them ;  and  I  believe  it  is  possible,  as  Christ  taught  his  disciples,  for 


TEE  CENTRAL  PRINCIPLE  OF  CEARA  CIER.         1 5 

a  rich  man  to  enter  the  kingdom  of  God,  if  God  helps  him.  With 
God  all  things  are  possible,  it  is  declared.  But  let  me  see  a  man 
conforming  to  society,  conforming  to  morality,  conforming  to  all 
decorous  and  just  usages,  who  stands  in  the  midst  of  a  great  posses- 
sion, called  to  choose  between  that  and  his  true  spiritual  good,  and 
then  I  can  determine  whether  that  man  is  living  in  the  lower  sphere 
— below  the  equatorial  line — in  a  common  selfishness ;  or  whether 
he  is  living  in  the  higher  sphere — above  that  line. 

I  hear  men  say,  sometimes,  "  I  do  not  care  for  riches.  It  is  not 
the  money  that  I  care  for.  It  is  the  excitement  of  getting  it.  Wealth 
is  the  key  that  opens  almost  every  door ;  it  is  a  source  of  power ; 
and  I  like  power."  I  have  heard  men  who  drank  talk  in  the  same 
strain,  saying,  "  I  do  not  like  liquor :  it  is  the  excitement  that  I 
like." 

It  is  true,  usually,  that  it  is  not  the  flavor  of  money  that  men 
like,  but  that  which  money  brings.  It  is  only  now  and  then  that 
there  is  one  that  loves  money  for  its  own  sake.  It  is  what  it  does, 
and  Avhat  it  yields,  it  is  the  effect  Avhich  it  produces  on  pride  and 
vanity,  it  is  the  sensuous  enjoyment  which  is  derived  from  it,  that 
is  understood  when  we  speak  of  the  love  of  money. 

Now,  if  a  man  has  wealth,  and  he  holds  it  as  a  man  holds  a 
mental  faculty,  all  of  it  consciously  dedicated  to  the  uses  of  God  ;  if 
he  himself  is  God's ;  if  being  an  artist,  all  his  power  of  genius  is 
God's,  conscientiously  held  and  conscientiously  administered,  not  for 
self-seeking,  but  for  the  highest  ends,  then  not  only  is  the  man  in 
the  way  to  be  saved  in  the  kingdom  of  God,  but  wealth  becomes  a 
mighty  factor  of  righteousness  and  a  power  for  God.> 

But  suppose  a  man  holds  Avcalth,  and  suppose  it  is  in  this  wealth 
that  his  ambition  is,  and  his  pride  is,  and  his  life  is  ?  You  may  touch 
him  all  round,  and  you  will  touch  that.  It  is  the  center  of  his 
being.  When  you  touch  that  you  touch  the  marrow.  When  you 
touch  him  in  his  weakh  j^ou  have  got  home. 

You  may  lop  off  a  man's  hand,  and'he  lives ;  you  may  take  off 
his  arm  at  the  shoulder,  and  he  can  live ;  you  may  remove  a  good 
deal  of  the  trunk,  and  he  still  can  live;  b\it  there  is  a  point  A\hich 
you  cannot  touch  without  his  dropping  dead.  So  in  a  man's  nature 
you  can  go  round  and  touch  this  and  that  (element  and  not  hurt  him; 
but  by  and  by  you  come  to  a  point  which  you  cannot  touch  without 
touching  the  center  of  his  existence. 

There  are  multitudes  of  men  who  live  moral  lives,  generous  lives, 
lives  that  are  good  in  a  thousand  respects ;  but  it  does  not  come  to 
this,  that  their  whole  being  is  centered  in  God  and  spiritual  things. 
It  is  centered,  rather,  in  the  possession  of  wealth.     There  is  where 


1 6  THE  CENTBAL  PBI:NCIPLE  OF  CffABA  CTEB. 

their  might  and  power  lie.  There  is  where  all  the  great  passions  of 
their  nature  come  together  to  a  focus,  so  that  if  their  wealth  is  taken 
away  they  have  nothing  left. 

I  do  not  say  that  they  are  sinful  because  they  have  money ; 
neither  do  I  say  that  they  are  not  good  according  to  the  standard 
by  which  men  judge  of  goodness  ;  but  as  before  God,  and  touching 
this  question  as  to  where  a  man's  character  is  to  be,  I  say  that  when 
one's  -whole'nature  is  centered  in  wealth  he  cannot  enter  the  king- 
dom of  God.  He  must  be  born  again,  and  come  to  a  higher  level, 
a  new  center,  or  he  cannot  be  saved. 

These  are  solemn  truths.  When  so  many  young  men  are  stretch- 
ing out  their  hands  for  wealth  ;  when  so  many  young  men  are 
planning  to  make  their  fortune  ;  when  so  many  young  men  are  long- 
ing for  this  bright,  blissful,  golden  center,  it  is  a  very  solemn  thing 
for  a  man  to  become  honestly  rich,  and  yet  lose  his  soul  because  his 
riches  are  the  center  of  his  very  life.  The  allegation  is  not  that  the 
young  man  made  a  bad  use  of  his  wealth  :  he  doubtless  made  a 
kind,  good-natured  use  of  it.  The  point  is  that  God  demands  that 
a  man's  central  life  shall  be  spiritual,  and  not  low  down  in  the 
things  of  the  flesh. 

I  perceive  the  same  thing  to  exist  in  men  in  the  matter  of  self- 
worship.  Pride  and  conceit  and  self-seeking  are  not  confined  to  the 
flesh.  They  are  the  curse  of  the  intellect.  They  are  the  curse,  also, 
of  the  imagination.  Selfishness  in  geniuses,  among  poets  and  art- 
ists is  not  only  wicked,  but,  alas  !  too  common.  Rich  men  do  not 
serve  themselves  with  their  riches  any  more  selfishly  than  men  of 
genius  serve  themselves  with  their  genius.  Do  they  not  make  their 
own  enjoyment  the  very  center  of  their  ambition?  Do  not  they 
gather  around  about  them  applause  ?  Do  they  not  endeavor  to  ex- 
cite admiration  ?  Do  they  not  live  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  under- 
standing ?  Their  treasures  of  knowledge,  their  eloquence,  their 
poetry,  their  fictile  skill,  their  afllrmative  power — these  are  elements 
of  selfishness  in  the  higher  range  of  faculties.  And  if  there  is  any 
discrimination,  Christ  uttered  his  most  terrible  denunciations  against 
those,  all  of  whose  higher  endowments  were  used  for  selfish  purposes. 
And  I  say  to  every  man  who  is  living  clean,  and  arrogating  to  him- 
self great  safety  because  he  never  indulges  his  lower  appetites  and 
passions,  that  however  pure  his  outward  life  may  be,  unless  his  life 
is  centered  on  divine  things,  he  must  be  born  again  before  he  can 
enter  the  kingdom  of  God. 

Do  I  make  it  plain  to  you  why  Christ  spoke"as  he  did  ?  Do  you 
understand  what  he  meant  in  some  degree  when  he  said  that  every 
man  must  be  changed  ?     Do  you  understand  that  it  is  not  implied 


THE  CENTEAL  FBINCIPLE  OF  OH  ABA  CTEE.  1 7 

that  every  man  is  necessarily  a  villain  and  a  culj)rit  according  to  hu- 
man ideas  ?  Do  you  understand  that  a  man  may  be  living  with 
many  decencies,  many  virtues,  many  good  qualities,  many  notable 
excellencies,  and  yet  be  supremely  worldly  and  selfish  ?  Do  you 
understand  that  a  man  may,  as  it  were,  explore  the  Avhole  realm  of 
beauty,  purity  and  truth,  and  bring  down  wreaths  of  flowers  to 
make  the  selfish  home  of  his  soul  more  beautiful  and  more  secure, 
and  that  after  all  no  man  can  have  hope  of  salvation  except  he,  by 
the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  the  examjple  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  shall  change  the  center  of  his  life  from  that  of  selfishness 
to  that  of  true  beneficence  ?  The  fact  that  a  man  lives,  not  for  him- 
self, but  for  God  and  his  fellow  men — that  it  is  which  makes  a  man 
salvable.  And  every  man  must  come  to  this  change — the  highest 
and  the  lowest.  Some  show  more  obviously  than  others  the  need 
of  it,  but  all  need  it,  and  all  die  if  they  do  not  have  it.  It  is  this 
which  is  the  passport  into  the  spirit-land.  Without  this  there  can  be 
no  entrance  there.  For  the  whole  universe  is  divided  by  that  line 
of  which  I  have  spoken.'  Above  are  those  who  live  for  a  larger 
benevolence,  and  beneath  are  those  who  live  for  some  form  of  self- 
seeking.  They  grade  all  the  way  down ;  and  they  grade  all  the 
way  up.  More  and  more  glorious  are  they  as  they  rise  to  greater 
beneficence,  to  more  marvelous  forms  of  self-denial,  to  an  ineffable 
power  by  which  one  is  enabled  to  make  himself  lighter  and  brighter 
and  stronger  and  haj^pier,  and  to  bow  down  and  sorve  with  more 
remarkable  delicacies  of  life. 

These  are  the  things  which  give  exaltation  in  heaven.  Men  do 
not  go  up  there  by  stature,  or  magnitude,  or  radiance,  or  anything 
that  you  can  enumerate.  It  is  the  ingenuity,  the  wondrous  power, 
of  the  heart ;  it  is  the  ineff*able  disclosures  of  what  the  heart  filled 
with  the  fii'e  of  love  can  do,  that  makes  men  princes  and  angels  and 
archangels  in  the  heavenly  land. 

From  the  lowest  depths  of  the  greatest  animalism  to  the  twilight 
line,  above  the  point  of  refinements  and  moralities  and  specious 
beauty,  every  man  is  to  pass.  He  must  make  a  transition  from  that 
Btate  in  .which  his  life  is  bent  supremely  on  self,  to  that  state  in 
which  his  life  is  bent  on  holy  things.  The  impulses  of  his  life  must 
be  changed.  Every  man  must  undergo  a  change  before  he  can  pass 
into  the  great  throng  of  the  salvable  ones.    He  must  be  born  again. 

The  number  of  those  who  have  had  serious  thoughts  in  this  con- 
gregation is  very  great.  After  a  shower  in  the  night,  if  you  go 
out  in  the  morning,  it  is  scarcely  safe  for  you  to  go  near  a  bush  or 
a  tree,  because  if  you  touch  it,  there  will  rain  down  such  multitudes 
of  drops  on  you.     I  sometimes  think  this  church  is  like  a  tree  that 


]  8  TEE  CENTRAL  FBINCIPLE  OF  CHABA  CTEB. 

has  stood  out  in  the  open  air,  and  collected  the  dew.  Every  leaf  is 
covered  Avith  it.  If  you  shake  the  tree,  down  come  a  shower  of 
drops.  I  see  you  moved  to  tears  every  Sunday.  I  know  that  you 
follow  and  enjoy  the  service  of  prayer  and  of  song  and  of  preach- 
ing. You  have  much  deep  religious  feeling,  and  a  great  deal  of 
thought.  The  pews  are  full  of  young  men  and  young  women  who 
ai-e  going  to  Christ  and  saying,  "  Master,  what  good  thing  shall  I 
do  that  I  may  inherit  eternal  life  ?"  And  Christ  says,  by  me,  to- 
day, to  every  one  of  you,  "  It  is  not  adding  one  good  thing  to 
another  that  you  need,  but  that  you  should  rise  from  the  center  of 
selfishness,  and  go  over  to  the  center  of  true  divine  benevolence,  by 
the  poAver  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  without  which  power  no  man  can  rise 
to  the  higher  level." 

You  are  to  find  a  new  heart  (for  that  is  what  is  meant),  a  new 
center,  a  new  point  of  life,  so  that  all  motives,  all  purposes,  all  aspi- 
rations shall  spring  from  a  higher  point,  a  new  judgment-seat,  new 
tests,  new  measurements,  laws  and  requisitions.  For  if  any  manbe 
in  Christ  Jesus  he  is  a  new  creature.  Old  things  are  passed  away  ; 
behold  all  things  are  become  new.  This  is  the  doctrine,  the  Gospel, 
of  to-day.     O  blessed  light !     O  glorious  emancipation  ! 

Ye  must  be  born  again.  It  seems  to  me  that  if  you  but  knew 
what  that  upper  life  is,  what  it  works  toward,  what  its  joys  are,  how 
sweet  it  is  here  and  all  the  way  up,  and  especially  beyond,  it  would 
not  be  needful  for  me  to  say,  "  Ye  must  be  born  again."  You  with 
uplifted  hands  and  clamorous  lips  would  say,  "  May  we  not  be  boru 
again  ;  may  we  not  be  crowned." 

It  is  the  most  blessed  invitation  that  ever  was  issued.  It  is  an 
emancipation  from  the  lingering  animal  life  that  belongs  to  each  in 
this  mortal  sphere.  Being  born  of  the  dust,  going  up  by  natural 
evolutions  and  growths,  coming  to  the  line  of  the  animal,  passing 
that,  and  going  still  higher,  there  is  a  point  of  transition  by  which 
we  are  to  go  into  another  kingdom,  a  higher  creation.  By  the  Holy 
Ghost  we  are  to  be  enfranchised,  changed,  lifted  up,  to  that  other 
kingdom.  Then  we  become  God's  sons,  and  are  no  longer  strangers 
and  foreigners,  and  no  longer  wanderers  and  aliens  from  the  com- 
monwealth of  Israel,  but  are  brought  home  by  the  power  of  love, 
convoyed  by  the  power  of  the  Spirit,  led  by  the  light  of  truth  out 
of  the  old  paths  and  into  the  new,  where  Ave  live  for  love  and 
■beneficence.  And  this  blessed  invitation,  is  addressed  to  every  one 
of  you. 

There  are  many  of  you  who  think  you  are  Christians.  I  believe 
many  of  you  are,  though  imperfectly  so.  But  I  fear  that  many  of 
vou  are  not.  Are  you  a  Christian  because  you  were  baptized  in  your 


TEE  CENTBAL  FEINCIPLE  OF  CEABA  CTEB.  1 9 

cliildhood  ?  It  is  not  in  the  power  of  water,  but  in  the  power  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  to  change  you.  Are  you  a  Christian  because  you  ob- 
serve days  and  ordinances  ?  These  things  ought  ye  to  have  done, 
but  the  other  and  higher  life  of  salvation — what  of  that  ?  Are  you 
Christians  because  you  are  orthodox  in  the  Catechism,  and  in  the 
Creed  ?  Nay,  Creeds  and  Cathechisms  are  simply  educating  instru- 
ments. They  are  merely  school-books  by  which  God  teaches  you 
how  to  live  a  higher  and  nobler  life.  Where  is  the  sensitive  point 
in  you  ?  Where  is  the  governing  force  in  you  ?  Where  is  the 
center  of  your  life  and  character  ? 

Would  it  not  be  a  good  thing  for  every  one  of  you,  Christian 
brethren,  to  go  home  to-day  and  look  into  the  simple  question, 
Where  does  my  life  center  ?  Where  do  my  roots  enter  and  issue  ? 
What  am  I  ?  Am  I  wholly  for  God,  and  for  the  eternal  and 
spiritual  world,  or  am  I  for  sense  and  for  this  world?  It  is  a  very 
solemn,  it  is  a  very  searching,  and  it  will  prove  a  very  profitable 
question. 

To  those  of  you  who  are  out  ©f  the  church,  as  well  as  to  those 
that  are  in  the  church,  I  come  to  say, 

"Except  ye  be  converted,  and  become  as  little  children,  ye  shall  not 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 

You  must  be  born  again.  You  must  be  born  of  water  and  of  the 
Spirit.  No  man  here  is  better  than  Nicodemus  was,  and  yet  to  no 
other  one  more  than  to  him  did  Christ  press  home  this  searching 
annunciation,  Ye  must  be  bor7i  again. 

May  God,  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  bring  this  matter 
home  to  you.  Ye  that  have  been  looking  wistfully  toward  a  relig- 
ious life ;  ye  that  have  been  hoping  yet  one  day  to  be  gathered  into 
the  Church  of  Christ,  may  God  lead  you  to  look  up  to  Jesus  himself, 
to  see  the  secret  of  his  sweet  life,  and  to  understand  the  mystery  of 
his  self-renunciation,  his  emptying  himself  of  all  reputation,  that  he 
might  bow  down  to  the  weak  and  the  sinful,  and  save  them  by  the 
might  of  his  own  nature.  May  God  give  you  that  self-emptying 
disposition,  and  make  you  understand  the  secret  of  being  made  happy 
by  what  you  give,  and  not  by  what  you  receive.  May  God  bring 
you  through  this  self-renunciation  into  that  new  birth  of  life  and 
truth  and  holiness  which  shall  make  you  the  very  children  of  God ! 


2  0  THE  CENTRAL  PBINCIPLE  OF  CHABA  CTEE. 

PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

Forever  blessed  be  thy  name,  O  Lord  God  most  high,  most  holy.  Far 
above  the  reach  of  our  understanding  thou  dwellest. ,  Our  sense  is  not  open 
to  discern  thee;  nor  is  there  that  goodness  in  us,  like  thine,  by  which  we  can 
interpret  thee.  Some  slender  experiences  have  we  as  children  and  as 
parents.  Some  light  and  lore  of  love,  and  its  patience  and  disinterestedness 
and  purifying  joy,  we  have;  but  who  of  us  can  rise  into  the  flame  of  thy 
being,  and  dwell  in  thoughts  with  thee  ?  Thou  art  a  consuming  fire.  If  we 
carry  up  our  lower  affections,  if  we  carry  that  up  which  is  within  us  of  hope- 
fulness, how  little  can  it  find  to  interpret  in  thee!  And  how  is  the  dread 
purity  of  thy  natvire  flaming  forth  against  selfishness  and  all  corruption  in 
us !  And  how  are  we  seared  before  thine  eyes  as  before  a  living  flame !  "We 
rejoice  that  thou  hast  been  pleased  to  make  this  manifest  to  us  through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  and  that  we  can  draw  near  to  him  feeling  that  we  are 
drawing  near  to  thee,  that  we  discern  the  divine  disposition,  that  we  know 
the  divine  thought  and  heart,  and  that  all  his  words  and  all  his  ways  are  the 
Divine  let  down  in  mortal  form,  so  that  except  through  him  we  cannot 
draw  near  to  thee,  nor  understand  thee,  nor  rejoice  in  thee,  nor  come  into 
personal  relation  of  sympathy  with  thee;  though  through  him  we  know 
thee,  and  rejoice  in  thee,  and  take  hold  with  our  hearts  and  hands  upon  thee. 

And  now  we  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  open  our  understandings  that 
we  may  discern  the  things  which  are  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord.  May  we 
come  into  such  sympathy  with  him  that  we  shall  interpret,  by  the  power 
given  us  in  the  Holy  Spirit,  in  him,  the  greater  truths  of  thy  realm,  and 
enter  upon  them,  and  live  in  them,  that  our  life  may  be  hid  with  Christ  in 
God.  Thou  art  drawing  us.  Even  as  the  sun,  though  it  be  winter,  is  call- 
ing to  all  things,  and  by  his  light  and  warmth  is  prevailing  upon  the  bidden 
things  to  come  forth;  so  art  thou  shining  even  in  our  "winter;  so  art  thou 
proclaiming  summer  over  our  death ;  so  wouldst  thou  by  the  Holy  Spirit 
shine,  O  Sun  of  righteousness,  into  our  hearts,  and  bring  forth  all  sweet 
and  pleasant  things.  Grant  that  there  may  rise  up  out  of  us  to-day  that 
which  shall  please  thee — such  budding  desires,  such  fragrant  love  and  glad- 
ness, such  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  shall  make  us  acceptable  in  thy  sight. 

But  behold  how  these  tender  things  are  overlaid.  "We  are  as  seeds  that 
seek  to  grow  from  beneath  mighty  stones  which  are  rolled  upon  them.  And 
even  when  they  have  found  their  way  out  with  crooked  growth  and  strug- 
gling, how  laborious  and  how  painful  is  it  for  them  to  grow,  and  how  imper- 
fectly do  they  come  forth !  And  see  how,  in  the  overlaying  of  care,  in  the 
operations  of  the  world,  in  the  dominion  of  our  passions,  the  things  which 
are  good  in  us,  nourished  and  watered  by  thy  good  Spirit,  still  grow  feebly, 
and  blossom  more  feebly,  and  bring  forth  almost  no  fruit.  Be  pleased,  O 
Lord  God,  to  interfere  in  this  struggle  with  us ;  for  we  cannot  control  our- 
selves as  of  ourselves.  "We  have  light  both  in  the  understanding  and  in  the 
will.  We  do  discern  the  things  which  are  right,  and  we  resolve  with  our 
power  to  do  the  things  which  are  right ;  and  yet,  how  impossible  we  find  it 
to  hold  ourselves  to  the  settled  convictions  of  each  hour !  How  do  we  drift ! 
How  do  we  slumber,  and  forget,  and  change  in  our  moods,  and  come  roimd 
again  to  the  same  battle ;  to  the  same  penitence ;  to  the  same  fixed  purpose, 
alas !  to  revolve  again ;  to  the  same  backsliding  and  disaster !  And  so,  while 
our  days  should  be  marches  in  the  new  upcast  road  on  which  ever  ransomed 
ones  do  walk,  we  are  moving  in  a  circle,  and  repeating  our  experiences.  "We 
are  seeking  the  things  that  are  good,  and  almost  gaining  them,  losing  our 
grasp,  slumbering,  and  waking  again.  And  so  our  life  worries  itself.  As  the 
chafing  tides  come  and  go,  mourning  and  complaining  against  the  rock  and' 
against  the  sand,  so  our  thoughts  do  evermore  complain  and  mourn. 


TEE  CENTRAL  PBINCIPLE  OF  GHABA  CTEB.  2 1 

O  Lord  our  God,  this  is  tliy  -work  io  us.  We  feel,  in  every  member,  in  all 
our  desires,  in  every  aspiration,  and  we  see  yet  more  when  we  look  upon  the 
fullness  of  our  life  and  of  our  nature,  how  complicate  is  all  that  which  thou 
art  leading  us  to  be  and  to  do.  We  feel  the  need  of  that  shining,  of  that 
intersphering,  all-powerful  influence  which  thou  dost  give.  And  if  there  be 
the  clouds  which  passion  sends  up,  and  which  hide  between  thee  and  any 
soul,  O  grant  that  there  may  come  some  sweet  wind  from  heaven  to  drive 
them  quite  away,  that  the  light  of  thy  glory  may  shine  into  that  strugghng 
soul.  If  there  be  those  who,  consciously  proud,  do  not  desire  that  thy 
Spirit  shall  rule  over  them,  strike  thou  in  this  battle  for  them.  If  there  are 
those  who  are  conscious  that  they  are  living  for  their  lower  and  their  pas- 
sional nature,  and  who  desire  to  escape  from  this  thrall,  and  to  lise  to  the 
higher  realm  of  holy  and  sweet  and  pure  desires,  O  strike  for  them  in  the 
battle  which  they  wage.  If  there  are  those  who  are  bound  fast  by  avarice, 
and  by  all  the  ties  which  come  with  the  throes  and  with  the  vicissitudes  of 
the  earthly  struggle,  gi-ant  that,  feeling  their  need  of  divine  help,  they  may 
find  thy  hand  smiting  down  their  enemies  and  strengthening  their  blows  in 
the  day  of  battle.  Grant,  we  beseech  of  thee,  if  there  are  any  who  are  con- 
sciously beguiled  and  misled  into  ten  thousand  insidious  ways,  that  they  may 
have  vigilance,  watchfulness  and  courage  to  the  very  end,  to  overcome  their 
easily  besetting  sin.  And  we  pray,  if  there  are  those  who  are  consciously 
desiring  a  better  lif^  who  are  consciously  desiring  to  live  for  God,  but  who 
yet  are  unwilling  to  let  go  of  themselves,  tliat  thou  wilt  reveal  the  truth  to 
them  to-day.  Make  them  to  understand  what  they  are,  where  they  stand, 
and  what  ails  them.  May  they  see  their  souls  as  thou  dost.  May  they  have 
grace  given  them  to  foisake  all,  that  they  may  come  to  thee.  And  though 
they  come  as  little  children,  with  all  their  life  to  live  over  again,  and  ail  their 
habits  to  be  refashioned,  and  all  their  soul  to  be  formed  anew,  still  may  they 
come  and  accept  the  kingdom  of  God.  And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  have 
great  mercy  upon  them.  Thou  that  didst  have  mercy  upon  the  dying  thief, 
and  didst  comfort  and  encourage  him  to  the  last  moment ;  thou  that  didst 
comfort  the  foi*saken  and  the  fallen.  Thou  that  didst  speak  even  unto  the 
publican,  and  bring  salvation  to  his  household ;  thou  that  wouldst  not  cast 
away  the  Syrophenician,  the  outcast  and  the  heathen,  but  didst  listen  to 
their  prayers,  and  grant  the  needed  blessing,  wilt  thou  refuse  when  thy 
children  call  to  thee?  When  they  are  tempted,  and  carried  away  captive 
often  and  often,  and  come  again  with  tears,  only  to  be  carried  again  away, 
and  come  back  again  to  mourn  before  thee,  wilt  thou  not  at  last  fix  them  in 
the  blissful  center  of  thy  love,  so  that  they  shall  abide  with  thee ;  so  that 
there  shall  be  trophies  of  thy  grace  in  the  midst  of  this  people  ? 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  comfort  those  who  have  found  the  way  to  God 
and  who  know  the  peace  which  there  is  under  the  shadow  of  his  wings. 
From  out  of  this  covert  may  they  invite  others.  Forbid  that  there  shall  be 
a  spiritual  self-indulgence,  and  that  men  shall  come  to  thee  only  to  make 
themselves  more  happy.  May  they  come  for  power  and  for  light.  May  they 
come  that  they  may  be  like  thee,  and  that  they,  in  turn,  may  bring  others ; 
80  that  all,  receiving  freely,  may  give  forth  freely. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  bless  our  Sabbath-schools  and  our  Bible  classes. 
.And  bless  those  who  teach  in  them,  that  they  may  be  filled  with  the  very 
gentleness  and  purity  and  patience  ahd  forbearance  of  Christ  Jesus.  And 
may  they  not  stand  above  those  who  are  committed  to  their  charge,  demand- 
mg  them  to  come  up  to  them,  but  may  they  know  how  to  do  as  thou  didst ; 
how  to  go  down  to  the  poor,  not  only  in  an  outward  way,  but  in  their 
thoughts  and  feelings ;  how  to  lay  aside  their  comfort  and  their  selfishness  to 
accept  them  in  all  their  poverty,  and  lowliness,  and  sins,  and  ugUness  of  dis- 
position ;  and  how  to  be  to  them,  according  to  the  measure  of  human  power, 


2  2  TEE  CENTBAL  FBINGIFLE  OF  CHAEA  CTEE. 

what  thou  art  to  them  as  teachers  according  to  the  measure  of  thy  divine 
power.  And  so  may  we  learn  how  it  is  that  thou  dost  bear  the  sins  and 
carry  the  sorrows  of  the  world.  May  we  learn  how  to  bear  each  other's 
iuflrmities ;  how  to  attemper  our  hf e  so  as  to  shield  the  infelicities  of  their 
lives.  May  we  learn  how  to  live,  not  for  ourselves,  but  in  the  kingdom  of 
love;  how  to  live  full  of  self -sacrifice,  and  for  the  joy  thereof;  how  to  live 
full  of  labors,  that  we  may  have  that  divine  rest  of  which  thou  hast 
taught  us. 

And  now,  O  Lord,  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  teach  thy  Church.  Grant  that 
the  day  of  its  divisions  may  cease ;  that  the  day  of  its  conflicts  may  have  an 
end ;  that  the  day  of  harmony  may  come ;  that  men  who  love  Christ  may 
love  one  another,  and  not  vex  each  other,  and  distract  each  other's  forces  by 
the  way.  Overrule  all  causes  of  jealousy,  all  mischiefs,  all  evil  surmisings, 
all  stumbling  at  the  truth.  And  grant  that  thy  kingdom  in  all  the  world 
may  be  advanced. 

O  Loi'd,  look  upon  thy  servants  who  are  assembled  together  in  a  far  dis- 
tant capital,  there,  according  to  their  light,  to  take  counsel  in  regard  to  the 
things  which  pertain  to  the  Church  of  Christ.  Give  them  a  truer  light. 
Move  upon  their  hearts.  Oh,  that  the  sweet  influence  of  the  Spirit  of  God, 
and  the  presence  of  Jesus  in  his  simplicity  and  great  love,  may  be  with  them, 
working  through  them,  and  overruling  them !  And  by  their  various  instru- 
mentality take  out  of  the  way  stumbling  blocks.  And  4iay  none  be  put  into 
the  way. 

And  so,  serve  thyself  and  thy  cause  by  every  instrumentality — by  the  high 
and  by  the  low,  by  the  wise  and  by  the  ignorant,  by  the  rich  and  by  the 
poor.  By  all  means  win  this  lost  and  dying  world  back  to  its  allegiance  to 
thee.  Let  thy  kingdom  come,  let  thy  will  be  done,  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven. 

And  to  thy  name  shall  be  the  praise,  Father,  Son  and  Spirit,  evermore. 
Amen. 


PRAYER  AFTER  THE  SERMON. 

Our  Father,  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  bless  the  word  of  truth  which  has  been 
spoken.  Grant  that  every  one  of  us  may  accept  it,  and  understand  it,  and 
feel  its  weight  and  power.  May  we  be  able  to  sit  in  judgment  upon  our- 
selves. May  we  be  able  to  go  searching  to  the  very  bottom  of  our  lives,  that 
we  may  know  where  we  stand.  May  we  know  whether  our  religious  feel- 
ings are  mere  accomplishments,  or  whether  they  are  the  marrow  and  the 
discerning  power  of  our  lives.  May  we  know  where  our  nature  hinges ; 
where  the  whole  force  of  our  being  is  most  found ;  and  may  we  look  to  it  our- 
selves, since  it  can  concern  none  as  it  does  us.  Grant  that  we  may  look 
faithfully,  each  one  for  himself,  into  our  own  characters,  as  we  stand  before 
God.  And  may  we  every  one  hear  the  voice  of  God,  believe  en  him, 
repent,  change,  so  that  we  shall  pass  from  death  unto  life,  and  be  no  longer 
the  enemies  of  God  and  righteousness,  but  become  thy  dear  children.  Help, 
O  Jesus,  help,  O  Holy  Spirit,  help,  O  pitying  Father— Father,  Son  and  Holy 
Spirit— help  every  one  that  without  thee  cannot  rise  and  come  into  thy 
kingdom.    And  to  thy  name  shall  be  the  praise  forever  and  ever.    Amen. 


II. 
'  Unprofitable  Servants. 


INVOCATION. 


Be  gracious  unto  us,  our  Father.  Behold  how  far  down  we  are  from  the 
tree  of  life  unto  which  we  would  fly  this  morning ;  and  thi-ough  what  winds 
and  storms  we  must  rise !  Bear  us,  Divine  Spirit,  upon  thy  wings.  Lift  us 
by  the  strength  of  God,  that  we  may  stand  by  our  thoughts  in  the  holy  place 
far  above,  and  behold  thee  as  thou  art,  and  rejoice  in  thee.  Grant  thy  bless- 
. ing,  we  beseech  of  thee,  as  we  worship;  as  in  sweet  fellowship  one  with 
another  we  sing  thy  praise ;  as  we  meditate  upon  thy  truth,  or  speak  it.  In 
the  service  of  the  sanctuary  and  in  the  joy  of  home,  may  we  find  thee  alike. 
And  in  all  things  may  we  worship  and  serve  thee.  We  ask  it  in  the  name  of 
the  Beloved.    Amen. 

2. 


UNPROFITABLE  SEEVANTS. 


"  So  likewise  ye,  when  y^ shall  have  done  all  those  things  which  are  com- 
manded you,  say.  We  are  unprofitable  servants :  we  have  done  that  which 
was  our  duty  to  do."— Luke  XVII.,  10.  ■ 


Not  to  dwell  on  other  points  connected  with  this  utterance,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  these  words  of  Christ  put  a  far  lower  esti- 
mate upon  human  conduct  and  attainment  than  men  are  wont  to 
do.  When  men  have  done  their  best,  they  are  still  to  say,  *'  We  are 
worthless." 

It  is  the  complaint  of  many,  that  Christianity  does  not  enough 
recognize  the  rights  and  dignity  of  human  nature ;  that  it  assumes 
the  monarchical  idea,  and  undervalues  man, '  that  it  may  exalt  the 
sovereignty  and  glory  of  God.  But  it  is  complained  that,  even  more 
than  the  text  of  Scripture,  preachers  traduce  human  nature,  and 
even  revile  it.  Nor  am  I  prepared  to  say  that  the  accusation  is  alto- 
gether devoid  of  truth.  I  am  not  here  to  defend  the  utterances  of 
all  the  men  that  have  been  called  "  preachers  of  the  Gospel." 

I  do  not  propose  to  defend  the  doctrine  of  depravity  as  held  in 
the  church  for  ages  past,  nor  to  justify  the  teachings  of  ministers  on 
the  subject  of  human  sinfulness.  I  propose,  however,  to  develop  to 
you  such  a  conception  of  human  character  as  shall  satisfy  you  that 
the  New  Testament  is  not  severe,  is  even  merciful,  in  its  representa- 
tions. And  in  doing  this  I  shall  not  argue  by  citing  texts,  since 
that  is  the  very  question  in  dispute — whether  the  Scriptures  are 
correct  in  their  representations.  To  quote  them  to  vindicate  them- 
Belves  certainly  is  not  good  I'easoning. 

Nor  shall  I  allege  the  sins  and  crimes  of  the  human  race  ;  nor 
yet  at  all  attempt  to  show  you  any  of  the  positive  evils  that  mani- 
fest themselves  in  human  life.  Contrariwise,  I  propose  to  show  you 
how  poor  and  imperfect  are  the  best  things  in  man,  leaving  you  to 
infer,  if  the  best  is  "  unprofitable,"  what  the  rest  must  be,  and  what 
must  be  the  grade  of  character. 

I  shall  assume,  then,  that  ordinary  men  are  in  the  possession  of 

Sunday  Morning,  Nov.  23,  1868.     Lesson  :  Matt.  VII.,  13.    Htmns  flPlymoutb 
CoUection)  :  Nos.  255, 531, 889.  >  i    j- 


26  UNFBOFITABLE  SEBYANT8. 

the  most  excellent  virtues.  I  will  not  even  dispute  your  moralities 
nor  your  virtues.  I  will  not  even  dispute  that  you  have  Christian 
virtues.  Indeed,  this  shall  be  the  very  starting-point.  I  will  credit 
you  with  these,  and  we  will  examine  them,  and  you  in  the  light  of 
them. 

Any  right  views  of  the  qualities  of  the  human  mind  must  carry 
with  them  three  substantial  [elements — number,  quality,  and  har- 
mony. 

Assuming,  then,  that  ordinary  men  have  good  qualities,  I  re- 
mark :  the  excellencies  of  even  the  best  men  are  seldom  more  than 
single  good  qualities  ;  and  they  are  not  a  corrected,  completed  and 
symmetrical  whole.  Even  men  who  are  known  and  praised  as 
eminent  in  excellence,  if  you  will  analyze  their  character,  shall 
be  found  to  be  nearly  deficient  in  some  points.  And  this  is  where 
the  mantle  of  charity  is  brought  in.  We  usually  stretch  the  skii'ts 
of  one  good  quality  to  cover  the  blank  made  by  the  absence  of  a 
dozen  others  ;  and  men  seldom  have  more  than  one  or  two  salient 
points  of  character  which  men  agree  in  calling  virtues — virtues 
of  any  degree  of  eminence,  at  any  rate.  And  usually  the  reverse  of 
every  excellence  is  wanting.  In  the  natural  order  of  the  human 
mind,  to  every  faculty  there  is  its  counterpoise.  There  are  two 
poles  of  every  single  tendency.  If  there  be  justice,  there  is  benevo- 
lence. If  there  be  combativeness,  there  is  its  opposite.  If  there  be 
a  spirit  of  the  ideal,  there  is  the  spirit  of  the  practical.  Ordinarily, 
men's  excellencies  are  only  on  one  pole,  and  the  opposite  is  usually  in 
deficiency. 

According  to  whatever  system  you  examine  the  contents  of 
man's  nature,  you  will  be  struck  with  the  fact  that  his  virtues  are 
only  single  qualities — threads,  not  fabrics ;  letters,  not  a  literature ; 
not  a  consistent  and  connected  chain  in  which  every  link  is  there, 
and  every  link  is  perfect,  and  every  link  is  locked  with  its  fellow. 
That  is  not  the  ordinary  character,  even  of  men  who  pass  for  very 
good  men. 

Thus,  one  man  is  bold,  but  he  is  not  cautious,  and  is  therefore 
continually  running  into  rashness.  His  very  boldness,  while  it 
inures  to  his  benefit,  is,  in  certain  instances,  constantly  bringing  him 
into  trouble.  A  man  is  just ;  but  then  he  is  cold  and  stern.  He 
utterly  lacks  tenderness,  without  which  there  cannot  be  any  high 
and  true  divine  justice.  Or,  the  man  is  wild.  In  that  case  he  is  very 
likely  not  to  be  firm.  The  man  is  severe  ;  but  he  is  not  merciful.  He 
is  merciful ;  and  then  he  is  tolerant,  probably,  of  all  manner  of  evil, 
and  fails  to  see  the  sinfulness  of  sin.     One  is  constant  \  but  in  order 


UNPEOFITABLE  SBBYANTS.  27 

to  become  constant,  he  is  obliged  to  be  obstinate.  One  is  practical 
and  efficient ;  but  then  he  is  not  rich  and  large  in  spiritual  thoughts. 
Another  is  large  and  fruitful  in  his  spiritual  nature  ;  but  then  he  is 
utterly  unpractical  and  good  for  nothing  so  long  as  he  is  an  inhabi- 
tant of  this  world.  And  so  we  are  continually  saying  of  men,  "  If 
only  they  had  this  or  that ;  if  to  all  their  excellencies  they  could 
add  something  that  would  give  them  the  command  of  those  excel- 
lencies, how  useful  they  would  be !"  Those  that  love  most  are  obliged 
to  say,  "  Well,  but  my  husband  is  one  of  the  most  excellent  men  in 

the  world,  only" .      Alas  !    that   only.      These   monosyllabic 

utterances — what  a  world  of  experience  is  embodied  in  them  !  and 
how  much  they  mean  !  If  one  is  generous  and  kind,  then  you  shall 
often  find  that  he  is  quite  lax  in  conscience.  If  he  is  genial,  he  is 
not  pure.  If  he  is  careful  and  exact,  he  will  be  rigorous  and 
uncharitable. 

Each  person,  then,  runs  to  specialties.  One  or  two  strong 
qualities  usually  stand  out,  and  they  are  apt  to  stand  out  in  excess. 

This  partialism  begins  in  the  very  faculty  ;  but,  as  might  be  ex- 
pected, it  leads  on  to  a  like  practical  partialism  in  outward  life.  One 
man  is  wise  and  good  in  his  family,  but  he  has  no  commensurate 
interest  in  the  whole  community.  Another  is  a  good  citizen,  but  a 
meager  friend.  Another  is  admirable  in  business,  but  without 
affinity  for  sentiment.  Another  has  fineness  of  taste,  and  grows 
toward  all  that  is  elegant  in  life,  but  then,  he  is  neither  broad  nor 
robust  nor  practical. 

And  so  we  find  that  men  are  partialists,  not  in  their  beliefs  alone, 
not  in  their  tastes  alone,  but  in  the  very  radical  idea  .of  character, 
having  single  elements.  Whereas,  human  character  was  made  to 
be  composite  by  a  multitude  of  separate  faculties,  that  all  of  them, 
organized  together,  might  be  in  strength  and  in  harmony.  We  see 
character  actually  developed,  even  among  the  best  specimens  in  life, 
by  rarely  other  than  single  excellencies  here  and  there. 

Consider,  then,  what  your  own  observation  among  your  friends 
will  furnish  you  examples  of.  Examine  the  people  about  you  in  this 
particular  mattei',  look  at  the  excellencies  of  those  persons  whose 
excellencies  are  marked,  and  ask  yoursejf,  "  Do  I  know  of  a  person 
in  whom  I  can  find  five  clear,  effulgent,  distinct  and  positive  virtues 
or  faculties  of  eminence  ?"  Begin  at  home ;  and  if  your  modesty 
prevents  your  looking  at  yourself,  your  neighbor  Avill  do  it  for  you 
thoroughly.  Go  on  to  the  next,  and  to  the  next,  and  to  the  next, 
all  around  in  the  circle  of  your  acquaintance — not  ai^ong  the  heroes 
of  your  imagination  ;  not  among  the  persons  who  have  a  name 
of  Avhich  you  have   formed   some  ideal,  but  among  persons  that 


28  UNPROFITABLE  SERVANTS. 

you  know  thoroughly — and  see  now  many  you  can  find  that  have 
more  than  a  few  scattered  excellencies.  Sift  them,  and  see  how 
much  there  is  of  chaiF  in  them,  and  how  much  of  wheat.  Carry 
statistics  rigorously  into  your  examination  of  those  around  about 
you.  I  mean  good  men.  I  do  not  mean  the  fallen-down.  Among 
the  living  men  that  you  are  willing  to  call  your  friends,  when  you 
come  to  think  of  it,  how  many  are  partialists  in  their  very  virtues  ! 

Suppose  the  human  soul  were  a  great  city — a  commercial  city, 
like  New  York — and  imagine  that  every  faculty,  with  all  its  issues, 
represented  some  department  of  business,  and  that  you  had  come 
down  to  the  soul-city  to  buy,  and  that  you  went  for  your  wares 
from  one  faculty  to  another — from  reason  to  the  moral  sentiments ; 
from  the  moral  sentiments  to  the  affections  ;  from  one  affection  to 
another.  Would  you  not  find  that  in  each  particular  case  you 
might  buy  a  few  things  in  each  man,  but  that  for  the  greatest  part 
of  his  faculties  he  had  no  stock  of  goods  at  all  to  sell,  and  nothing 
to  look  upon  ?  Where  can  you  find  a  man  whose  nature  is  such 
that  you  can  go  into  it  as  into  a  mighty  bazaar,  and  there  find 
the  precious  jewels  of  spiritual  life ;  there  find  moral  sentiments 
like  gold  and  precious  metals  ;  there  find  affections ;  there  find 
all  that  intellect  can  give ;  there  find  all  that  these  combined 
can  give  ?  Where  can  you  find  a  nature  in  which  you  can  see  the 
traffic  of  universal  virtue  ?  Some  such  natures  there  are  in  poetry ; 
but  alas !  poetry  is  a  realm  that  can  only  be  trodden  by  the  feet  of 
angels.  Some  there  are  in  literature.  Some  there  are  in  memorials. 
Some  persons  would  lead  us  to  suppose  that  they  had  this  universal 
development  of  strength  in  each  one  of  the  great  faculties  of  their 
nature.  It  is  very  easy  in  writing  a  man's  life  to  give  him  a  good 
character  when  he  is  dead  and  gone,  and  you  cannot  convict  him. 
It  is  very  easy  to  make  perfect  men  out  of  dead  men.  But  it  is 
very  hard  to  make  jierfect  characters  out  of  any  men  who  ai"e  liv- 
ing. When  a  man  is  alive,  how  little  do  you  suspect  that  he  is 
what  he  is  when  you  see  him  in  the  Sunday-school  library  !  When 
you  see  a  man  in  the  street,  or  in  the  store,  how  little  do  you  suspect 
that  he  is  what  he  is  when  you  see  him  in  a  religious  biography, 
where  he  comes  out  with  a- perfect,  full-orbed  character  !  I  am  led, 
when  I  see  what  men  are,  to  suspect  the  perfectness  of  Avhat  men 
have  been.  It  is  not  according  to  the  analogy  of  this  world  that 
men  should  be  found  to  be  perfect  in  more  than  one  or  tAVO  salient 
virtues.     They  are  not  symmetric. 

The  concluspion,  then,  with  this  view^  is,  that  the  excellencies  of 
good  men  are  frequently  derived,  not  from  their  whole  nature,  but 
from  single  faculties.     Tliey  are  partialisras. 


UNPBOFITABLE  SERVANTS.  29 

Besides,  remember,  we  said  there  must  be  found  in  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  character  of  every  man  the  matter  of  equality.  This  is 
even  more  important  than  the  last  consideration — the  quality  of  our 
excellencies.  We  are  familiar  with  this  term  quality  as  it  is  applied 
to  matter,  to  timber,  to  fabrics,  to  metals,  to  workmanship,  to  jewelry, 
to  arts.  A  picture  may  be  a  picture ;  and  yet  its  quality  may  be 
such  as  to  rank  it  very  low.  Cloth  may  be  cloth ;  and  yet  it  may 
be  made  up  of  shoddy,  and  its  quality  may  be  very  inferior.  There 
may  be  such  a  thing  as  quality,  too,  in  virtues.  Men  may  have  vir- 
tues ;  but  their  quality  may  be  very  low.  This  element  of  quality 
is  recognized  just  as  much  in  disposition  as  in  physical  things.  In 
regard  to  sentiments,  affections,  or,  as  they  are  generally  called,  vir- 
tues, they  ought  to  have  these  marks  of  quality :  truth,  largeness* 
continuity,  universality,  fruitfulness,  fineness  and  beauty. 

Now,  examine  the  single  virtues  which  we  accredit  to  men.  We 
have  said  that  they  ai-e  partialisms.  But  let  us  for  the  moment  for- 
get these,  and  take  in  all  those  qualities  in  which  men  do  excel,  and 
examine  them.  Are  they  strong  and  large?  Do  they  impress  you 
with  a  sense  of  amplitude,  vigor,  and  outpouring  fullness  ?  Men  have 
strength  enough.  See  a  man's  enthusiasm  when  it  is  ambition.  He 
has  strength  enough  in  that  direction.  But  apply  the  test  to  moral 
quality.  Has  he  strength  in  that  ?  Let  it  be  money,  and  all  that 
money  means,  and  see  what  a  voluminous  agent  man  is.  There  is 
no  deficiency  of  vigor,  nor  of  variety,  nor  of  intensity,  nor  of  fullness 
of  power,  then.  You  know  what  large-mindedness  is  in  avarice.  Or, 
let  it  be  any  of  the  lower  forms,  let  it  be  revenge,  let  it  be  anger 
and  indignation,  and  Avhat  a  sense  of  vigor  there  is  !  "  Be  angry  " — 
men  are  very  busy  obeying  that ;  but  they  never  think  of  the  other 
half—"  sin  not." 

If,  now,  you  take  a  moral  quality,  where  do  you  find  any  cor- 
responding vigor,  largeness,  intensity,  in  it  ?  Where  do  you  find 
these  qualities  in  beneficence,  generosity,  meekness,  humility,  pa- 
tience, self-denial,  in  any  of  the  higher  virtues  which  bear  intimate 
relation  to  the  moral  nature  of  man  ? 

One  of  the  most  popular  and  best  recognized  of  men's  qualities 
is  benevolence,  in  the  various  forms  of  generosity  and  liberality. 
And  is  not  a  man's  benevolence  very  largely  like  a  hunter's  tinder- 
box.  Traversincc  the  wilderness  in  rain  or  in  snow,  he  carries  neither 
light  nor  warmth  with  him ;  but  in  his  pocket  he  has  his  box  with 
which,  by  dint  of  flint  and  steel,  he  can  strike  out  sparks,  which  shall 
catch  the  tinder,  and  from  which,  by  a  good  deal  of  pains,  taking 
shelter,  he  can  at  last  kindle  a  fire  by  which  to  cook  his  victuals  or 
warm  his  meals.     Is  not  the  spiiit  of  benevolence  a  thing  by  which, 


30  UNFBOFITABLE  SJEBVANTS. 

as  a  man  makes  a  fire  with  a  tinder-Lox  and  flint  and  steel,  one  plies 
motives  and  instruments,  until  at  last  he  comes  to  a  fire  large  enough 
to  answer  some  practical  purpose  ?  How  many  men,  among  even 
good  men,  do  you  find  who  have  ^o  much  benevolence  that  it  is  auto- 
matic ;  that  it  is  spontaneous  ;  that  it  sheds  its  light  over  all  ?  Where 
do  you  find  men  in  whom  benevolence  is  so  positive  and  strong  and 
fine  that  it  is  continuous  and  fruitful  and  beautiful  ?  There  are  some 
single  instances  of  such  men,  but  they  are  rare  enough  for  canoniza- 
tion. How  far  are  men  who  are  called  benevolent,  and  who  are  sus- 
ceptible of  becoming  benevolent  on  persuasion,  from  answering  any 
such  tests  as  those  which  are  applied  to  the  Christian  character ! 
Therefore  it  is  that  you  find  so  much  in  the  New  Testament  on  the 
quality  of  moral  governments. 

"  The  Lord  loveth  a  cheerful  giver." 

We  are  forbidden  to  give  "  grudgingly."  And  yet,  how  many 
persons  who  have  the  name  of  benevolence  do  give  grudgingly.  It 
is  grudgingly  that  they  give,  whether  Avhat  they  give  is  money,  or 
influence,  or  any  other  thing.  It  is  solicited  of  them.  They  are  not 
cheerful  givers.  How  few  men  make  their  benefactions  sweeter  than 
flowers  !  How  many  men  are  there  who,  when  you  approach  them 
for  that  which  they  have,  or  can  command,  meet  you  in  a  spirit 
which  makes  you  admire  not  merely  their  benevolence,  but  the 
beauty  and  sweetness  of  it  ?  How  many  of  you  ever  solicit  men 
from  Avhom  you  turn  away,  saying,  "  He  is  a  prince — he  is  a  lordly 
nature."  How  many  men  are  blessed  in  receiving  your  bounty  ? 
How  many,  on  the  other  hand,  are  humbled,  and  go  away  feeling, 
"  He  has  answered  my  request,  to  be  sure  ;  but  he  met  me  with  so 
mean  a  spirit  that  I  would  rather  never  ask  another  favor  of  him  in 
the  world  ?"  It  is  in  the  power  of  some  men  to  say  no  to  you  so 
that  it  shall  be  filled  with  more  blessings  than  the  yes  of  other  men. 

How  men's  excellencies  in  this  life  fail  when  you  come  to  exam- 
ine their  quality,  and  when  you  come  to  see  what  is  their  want  of 
largeness,  and  delicacy,  and  sweetness,  and  continuity,  and  beauty  I 
How  little  do  they  answer  the  royal  portraiture  that  is  given  in  the 
life  of  our  blessed  Saviour  !  Look  at  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit,  as  it  is 
recounted  in  this  memorable  chapter — the  5th  of  Galatians : 

"  The  fruit  of  the  Spirit  ia  love,  joy." 

There  is  not  a  single  faculty  that  has  not  love  and  joy  in  it.  How 
many  faculties  there  are  that  act  musically,  lovingly,  cheerily,  in- 

spiringly  ! 

"  The  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love  [which  is  the  supremest  lif e],  joy  [the  in- 
evitable result  of  that  life],  peace." 

Peace  ?  Alas  !  peace  has  long  ago  disappeared.  If  there  is  any 
peace  it  is  hoarded.     We  scarcely  know  it.     Peace  I  think  is  more 


•  UNPEOFITABLE  SEBYANT8.  31 

blessed  than  joy.     Peace  is  that  quality  which  abides  after  love  and 
joy  have  attuned  the  soul  to  ecstasy. 

"  The  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love,  joy,  peace,  long-suffering." 

How  many  have  long-suffering  ?  How  many  have  the  rudiments 
of  it,  even  ?  Some  men  ai*e  long-sviffering  toAvard  their  children ; 
they  are  less  so  toward  their  neighbors ;  and  they  are  not  at  all  so 
toward  those  who  are  outside  of  their  circle.  It  is  a  rare  and  infre- 
quent experience.  It  has  neither  continuity,  nor  universality,  nor 
fruitfulness,  nor  fineness,  nor  beauty. 

"The  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love,  joy,  peace,  long-suffering,  gentleness, 
goodness,  faith,  meekness,  temperance." 

It  is  said  that  against  all  these  qualities  there  is  no  law.  That  is 
to  say,  where  men  have  these  faculties  according  to  the  Christian 
ideal,  they  are  lifted  up  so  far  above  the  necessity  of  special  rules  of 
life,  being  a  law  unto  themselves,  that  against  themi  there  cannot  be 
a  law  framed.     They  fly  higher  than  laws  ever  could. 

There  is  one  other  test.  I  have  spoken  of  quality.  There  is  har- 
mony, likewise.  The  distinctive  characteristic  of  man  is  the  com- 
plex organization  of  his  mind — the  union  of  many  divine  elements, 
balancing,  restraining,  inspiring  and  qualifying  each  other.  If  we 
examine  in  this  direction,  we  shall  find  that  character  is  poorer  than 
in  those  directions  in  which  we  have  already  looked  at  it.  The 
ruling  faculties  in  men's  minds  have  but  very  little  commerce  with 
their  companions.  I  am  accustomed  to  think  of  character  as  being 
indicated  by  the  company  which  a  man's  faculties  keep.  I  look  at 
the  best  men,  and  I  say  to  myself,  "  In  these  men  conscience  is  pre- 
dominant ;  but  then,  conscience  only  leavens  half  of  their  faculties. 
As  the  sun  in  the  spring  melts  the  snow  on  the  south  side  of  the 
fence,  and  leaves  it  untouched  on  the  north  side,  where  it  lies  long 
after  the  violets  have  blossomed  on  the  south  side,  so  I  see  it  to  be 
in  the  characters  of  men.  The  dominant  faculties  are  dominant 
simply  in  their  own  sphere.  Or,  they  touch  the  other  faculties  only 
a  little.  There  are  very  few  men  who  carry  a  conscience  beyond  a 
convention.  Most  men  use  their  conscience  as  they  have  been  taught 
to  use  it.  They  do  not  apply  it  to  every  single  faculty  from  the 
base  to  the  crown  of  their  natures.  It  is  very  limited  in  its  range, 
in  its  associations,  in  its  partnerships  with  the  other  faculties  of  their 
mind. 

Take  the  quality  of  ideality.  How  little  does  it  go  out  of  its  own 
sphere  !  It  was  meant  to  be  a  leavening  quality  for  every  single 
moral  element.  The  "  beauty  of  holiness  "  is  insisted  upon  in  the 
Word  of  God.  How  little  do  we  see  of  the  beauty  of  holiness  in 
actual  Christian  life  !  Beauty  belongs  to  every  single  quality.  We 
are  apt  to  have  beauty ;  but  we  buy  it,  in  our  raiment,  in  our  fur- 


32  UNPBOFITABLE  SEBYANT8,  * 

niture,  in  our  pictures.  We  buy  it  of  the  architect  and  of  the  artist. 
But  man  himself  was  made  to  be  beautiful.  There  is  a  great  artist- 
faculty  in  every  single  man  which  was  meant  to  cast  out  its  light  so 
that  words  should  be  beautiful;  so  that  all  unconscious  actions 
should  be  rounded  out  in  the  spirit  of  true  beauty ;  so  that  all  vir- 
tues should  issue  beautifully.  But  how  seldom  do  we  find  men  in 
whose  faculties  there  is  any  such  harmony  ! 

Look  at  the  feeling  of  benevolence,  which  was  meant  to  have 
commerce  with  every  part  of  the  mind.     Benevolence  has  a  speak- 
ing acquaintance,  I  suppose,  with  almost  all  men's  faculties,  and ' 
that  is  all.     It  is  intimate  and  visits  in  only  one  or  two  places  in  the 
minds  of  men. 

If  you  go  to  a  man  who  has  dwelt  in  a  city  ten  or  twelve  years, 
and  ask  him  if  he  is  much  acquainted  with  his  neighbors,  he  will 
Yery  likely  say  that  he  scarcely  knows  one  of  them.  He  reads  their 
names  on  the  doors  of  their  houses,  but  he  has  never  been  in  to  see 
them,  and  he  does  not  know  them.  And  benevolence  is  as  much  a 
stranger  in  a  man's  mind,  as  a  man  is  in  the  city  where  he  dwells. 
There  is  a  good  deal  of  it,  but  it  does  not  get  around  much.  It 
stays  at  home  for  the  most  part,  and  does  not  become  acquainted 
with  its  neighbors.  It  does  not  act  as  a  leaven.  There  seems  to  be 
a  good  deal  of  misunderstanding  or  coldness  between  benevolence 
and  conscience.  If  a  man  is  conscientious,  how  seldom  do  you  find 
that  conscience  and  benevolence  blend  so  intimately  that  you  can 
scarcely  distinguish  between  them !  But  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
a  true  benevolence  without  a  conscience  in  it ;  and  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  a  true  conscience  without  a  benevolence  in  it.  In  the  ideal 
man,  the  higher  faculties  are  blended  and  harmonious ;  so  that  the 
love  of  approbation  carries  with  it  conscience,  and  benevolence  and 
beauty;  so  that  every  faculty  which  acts  carries  the  quality  of 
interaction  with  all  the  other  faculties.  Something  of  everything 
should  be  in  each  specific  act  throughout  the  mind.  But  how  sel- 
dom do  we  find  this  even  among  the  best  men !  And  as  men's  na- 
tures seldom  interact  in  this  free  way ;  their  natures  seldom  act 
jointly.  You  cannot  very  well  act  with  your  hand  and  not  carry 
every  one  of  the  five  fingers  with  it.  In  ordinary  work,  where  a 
part  of  a  man's  hand  is  employed,  the  whole  is  employed.  You 
cannot  with  the  grip  of  your  thumb  and  finger  exert  the  force  which 
you  can  with  your  whole  hand.  There  is  a  jDOwer  to  smite  in  the 
clenched  fist  which  there  is  not  in  the  open  hand.  And  there  is  a 
power  in  the  faculties  combined  which  there  is  not  in  the  faculties 
separated.  But  there  are  few  men  in  any  of  the  walks  of  life  who 
know  how  to  throw  their  whole  combined  nature  into  their  course 


UNPBOFITABLE  SERVANTS.  33 

of  life.  There  are  few  men  that,  as  traders,  or  artists,  or  students, 
or  speakers,  or  poets,  represent  the  whole  of  human  nature.  They 
represent  one  or  two  faculties,  because  the  faculties  are  accustomed 
to  act  in  this  way,  and  the  harmony  of  the  whole  is  not  known. 

Nay,  when  men  see  combined  action,  or  feeble  attempts  at  it,  that 
which  aspires  to  a  true  concord  strikes  them  as  discord.  You  must 
touch  every  instinct  in  a  man  before  he  will  discourse  in  such  a  way 
that  truth  shall  round  itself  out  by  the  force  of  all  the  faculties — 
of  the  basilar  instincts,  of  the  social  powers,  of  the  intellect,  and 
•of  the  moral  sentiments.  Let  there  be  unity  in  all  these  elements, 
and  how  few  men  would  think,  "  Why,  that  is  religion"  !  They 
have  been  so  accustomed  to  regard  religion  as  merely  the  plying 
together  of  two  or  three  special  faculties,  that  when  they  see  the 
whole  soul  combined  and  exerting  its  power,  they  are  struck  with 
the  unsaci-edness  of  it.  The  power  exerted  seems  to  them  a  power 
derived  from  consentaneous  action.  And  the  spectacle  of  all  the 
faculties  working  together  for  one  end  shocks  men  as  being  less  than 
religion.  Religion  is  a  very  slim,  lean,  gaunt,  poor,  ill-fed  thing,  as 
it  is  ordinarily  conceived  of  in  this  world. 

I  need  not  follow  out  this  analysis,  or  synthesis,  any  further.  If 
it  be  true  that  good  men  will  not  bear  inspection  in  the  number  of 
their  good  qualities,  or  in  the  quality  and  harmony  of  their  excellen- 
cies, who  can  say,  "  I  am  good"  ?  Who  can  avc^id  saying,  in  the  lan- 
guage of  our  text,  when  he  has  done  the  best  that  he  knows  how, 
"  I  am  an  unprofitable  servant  ".^ 

I  remark,  in  view  of  this  discussion, 

First.  There  is  a  profound  ignorance  among  men  in  respect  to 
it.  Even  the  knowledge  respecting  it  of  the  very  best  men,  who 
have  a  realizing  sense  of  their  weakness  and  of  their  sinfulness,  is 
but  superficial.  Men  know  something  about  it ;  but  I  think  there 
are  very  few  men  who  have,  even  judged  from  a  human  stand-point 
(I  will  not  say  enlightened  by  the  revelation  of  the  law  of  God), 
from  the  stand-point  of  natural  science,  any  adequate  conception  of 
their  feebleness,  or  their  poverty.  Their  conception  of  character 
is  low.  And  if  this  is  so  in  regard  to  the  best  men,  what  must  it 
be  in  regard  to  the  worst  ? 

Therefore  it  is  that  conviction  of  sin  is  not  a  thing  unnatural. 
Many  men  suppose  conviction  of  sin  to  be  something  artificial, 
foisted  upon  man.  They  suppose  it  to  be  the  result  of  over-stimu- 
lation. But  if  the  line  of  thought  this  morning  be  true,  nothing  is 
more  natural  than  that  men,  measuring  themselves  in  this  way, 
should  come  at  last  to  such  a  sense  of  their  deficiency  in  things 
good  and  their  positive  fault  in  all  other  respects,  as  to  be  filled 


34  UNPROFITABLE  SJEEVANTS. 

with  a  sense  of  theii'  degradation,  their  poverty,  their  utter  neces- 
sity. And  if  they  come  to  this  conviction,  how  natural  it  is  that 
they  should  depreciate  themselves,  that  they  should  loathe  them- 
selves, and  that  they  should  repent  in  dust  and  ashes ! 

How  are  the  Gospel  injunctions  toward  humility  scientifically 
confirmed  when  you  come  to  look  at  any  man  in  the  light  of  the 
truth  which  we  have  held  up  this  morning !  And  I  cannot  but 
think  that  the  tendencies  of  natural  science  in  our  day  are  dii*ectly 
away  from  what  they  should  be  in  this  respect ;  that  men  who  are 
running  after  natural  science,  are  running  away  from  the  wisdom  oi 
their  soul  toward  the  wisdom  of  the  senses,  and  putting  emphasis 
upon  mere  knowledge,  upon  the  intellect — which  is  the  old  Greek 
partialism — and  are  leaving  out  the  realm  of  emotion,  quality,  har- 
mony, in  short,  character.  With  the  progress  of  science  there  is 
setting  in  more  self-content,  more  self-conceit,  less  self-abasement, 
and  so,  with  a  show  of  power,  great  weakness. 

Second:  If  the  views  which  I  have  presented  are  correct,  you  see, 
now,  why  it  is  that  the  doctrine  of  perfection,  as  it  has  been  held 
by  different  sectaries,  is  so  unwise.  It  is  generally  assumed  that  a 
man  is  perfect  when  he  keeps  God's  law — that  is  to  say,  when  he 
does  not  forget  God's  law.  If  a  man's  will  is  perfectly  resigned  to 
God's  law,  it  is  supposed  that  that  constitutes  perfection.  But  how 
shallow  is  such  a  conception  !  As  if  all  that  is  meant  by  the  ex- 
pressions, largeness  of  nature,  fullness  of  faculty,  and  harmony  of 
soul,  had  been  attained  by  any  man  !  Or,  as  if  anything  less  than 
this  was  worthy  of  being  called  perfect ! 

Is  an  apple  perfect  because  it  has  not  a  worm  in  it  ?  It  may  be 
small,  it  may  be  sour,  it  may  be  half  ripe,  it  may  be  fit  for  nothing 
to  keep  or  to  eat,  and  yet  have  no  positive  blemish. 

A  man  may  have  no  outbreaking  sin,  and  he  may  have  a  certain 
sort  of  conscience,  so  that  he  is  willing  to  keep  the  external  law ; 
but  what  man  is  there  who,  if  he  considers  that  God's  law  is  in  him 
and  in  his  faculties,  has  not  a  large  sense  of  their  symmetry  and 
potency  ?  And  yet,  what  man  would  presume  to  say,  "  I  am  per- 
fect "  ?  It  is  utterly  irreconcilable  with  the  laws  of  life  and  growth. 
And  men  impose  upon  themselves  by  words — even  good  men  do — 
when  they  assume  that  they  are  perfect.  No  man  is  perfect  in  the 
sense  in  which  we  ought  to  use  the  term  perfection,  nor  will  any 
man  ever  be. 

Third :  We  see  why,  even  in  the  best  and  noblest  men,  salvation 
will  be  by  grace.  We  see  why  it  is  that  no  man  can  rise  before 
God  and  the  heavenly  host  and  lay  claim  to  aught.  It  is  for  the 
simple  reason  that  there  is  no  man  who  in  any  single  faculty  has  not 


UNPROFITABLE  SEEYANTS.  35 

come  short  an  infinite  number  of  times.  If  you  apply  to  a  man's 
character  and  conduct  all  the  tests  which  we  have  considered  this 
morning,  there  is  no  man  who  in  any  one  direction  can  stand  before 
God,  saying,  "  I  have  fulfilled  duty ;  I  have  reached  the  utmost 
bound  that  it  was  possible  for  me  to  reach."  In  all  respects  we  are 
deficient.  One  part  of  infirmities  we  may  call  deficiencies  ;  but  we 
must  call  another  part  of  them  sins,  having  in  them  the  princiijle  of 
voluntariness.  And  Avhen  a  man  shall  rise  before  God,  there  will  be 
nothing  in  all  his  life  which  he  can  hold  up,  saying,  "  Because  I  am 
just  and  true  and  beautiful  and  symmetrical  and  fair,  therefore  take 
me."  'ISro  ;  at  the  very  best,  when  we  stand  before  God,  it  will  be, 
not  what  is  good  in  us,  but  the  abundance  of  goodness  that  is  in 
him,  which  Avill  insure  our  salvation.  Grace  is  the  action  of  a  being 
from  motives  of  goodness  in  himself  toward  those  who  are  inferior 
to  him.  It  is  not  fovinded  on  desert.  It  is  the  bounty  and  kindness 
of  a  great  nature  toward  a  lower  and  ill-deserving  nature.  God 
saves  all  men  that  are  saved,  by  his  grace. 

Out  of  this  vivid  sense  of  deficiency  and  weakness  and  wicked- 
ness, there  ought  to  spring  up,  in  every  true  Christian  heart,  an  as- 
piration without  end.  Contentment  in  one  sense  we  ought  to  have. 
Contentment  with  the  allotments  of  God's  providence,  contentment 
with  each  day  as  a  stage  of  our  existence,  is  lawful ;  but  content- 
ment as  applied  to  character  is  criminal.  And  no  man  should  have 
such  a  contented  sense  of  his  attainments,  or  of  his  moral  excel- 
lencies, that  he  should  rest  quiet  for  an  hour.  Aspiration  is  indis- 
pensable to  our  Christian  experience. 

Again :  There  ought,  also,  to  be  the  apprehension  and  the  appro- 
priation of  Christ,  as  the  one  Perfectness,  useful,  and  available  by 
every  human  being  that  Avill.  All  our  life  through  we  have  special 
need  of  our  great  Counterpart.  Over  against  every  weakness  we 
ought  to  feel  that  there  is  One  in  our  family  that,  by  his  excellence 
makes  up  for  that  weakness.  Over  against  every  great  want  there 
ought  to  be  the  consciousness  that  there  is  One  who  makes  uj)  for 
that  want.  Tliis  One  is  Christ,  Avho  is  not  simply  the  Saviour  of 
men,  but  who  has  identified  himself  in  such  a  way  Avith  men,  that 
each  man  can  take  Christ  into  himself,  as  it  were,  and  say,  "  What  I 
have  not  is  here  in  my  Brother,  my  Friend,  my  Saviour.  I  am  one 
with  him.  His  excellence  stands  over  against  my  want  and  imper- 
fectness.  It  is  the  grace  of  God  that  makes  me  what  I  am."  It  is 
impossible  to  describe  this  subtle  experience ;  but  there  is  not  a  true 
Christian  here  who  does  not  know  without  description,  that  there 
may  be  such  intimacy  with  Christ  that  his  eternal  excellence  shall 
become  ours.     There  is  not  a  transfer  of  moral  qualities  ;  but  there 


36  UNFBOFITABLE  SERVANTS. 

is  a  consciousness  that  we  have  of  employing  for  our  own  develop- 
ment and  moral  life  all  those  higher  elements  which  are  so  deficient 
in  us. 

Lastly:  Out  of  this  sense  of  imperfectness  comes,  not  sorrow 
altogether,  but  much  joy.  Paul  rejoiced  that  when  he  was  emptied 
he  was  filled.  CaiTy  a  stone  that  is  not  hollowed  out  to  the  fountain, 
and  it  holds  no  water.  Hollow  it  out,  and  it  becomes  a  vase  in 
which  to  carry  away  the  treasure  of  the  spring.  When  we  go  to 
God  it  is  our  emptiness  that  is  our  blessing.  It  is  our  deficiency 
that  is  our  advantage.  As  he  that  goes  to  the  i^hysician  takes  hold 
upon  him  by  the  disease,  by  the  fracture,  or  by  the  organic  lesion ; 
60  when  we  go  to  God,  we  do  not  touch  the  Divine  Orb  by  symmetry, 
nor  by  sympathy,  but  by  our  want.  And  when  Ave  are  weak,  we  be- 
come strong;  when  empty,  filled;  when  sinful,  perfected  by  his 
righteousness.  As  this  life  is  only  a  part  of  existence,  life  as  a  per- 
spective is  opened  up  to  every  one  of  us.  As  we  come  to  have 
a  consciousness  of  our  feebleness  and  partialism,  there  is  a  growing 
apprehension  of  a  land  where  character  shall  be  filled  out  and  wrong 
righted,  and  where  that  which  is  only  sketched  here  shall  be  de- 
veloped and  perfected.  Thus  we  are  enabled  to  learn  something  of 
the  heavenly  state.  And  in  proportion  as  men  deal  with  themselves 
in  high  spiritual  ways,  the  conception  of  heaven  becomes  vivid. 
Those  who  are  low  in  earthly  cares  have  but  a  faint  conception  of 
the  heavenly  rest ;  but  those  who  strive  for  a  full  and  perfect  man- 
hood on  earth  have  the  clearest  conception  of  that  rest  which  be- 
longeth  to  the  people  of  God. 

Brethren,  have  you  lived  in  a  suitable  humility,  when  you  come 
to  consider  what  you  are  ;  how  poorly  you  are  made  up  ;  how  im- 
perfectly you  are  educated  ;  how  vulgar  you  are  in  many  respects  ? 
When  you  see  how  little  you  have  of  symmetry,  how  little  of  power, 
how  little  of  that  which  constitutes  an  ideal  manhood,  as  men  con- 
ceive of  it,  and  still  less  as  God  thinks  of  manhood,  are  you  living 
in  a  suitable  state  of  humility  ?  Do  you  lay  your  hand  upon  your 
mouth,  and  your  mouth  in  the  dust,  every  day,  and  say,  "  0  God,  be 
merciful  to  me  a  sinner ;"  or,  do  you  wrap  your  righteousness  about 
you,  and  say,  "  I  am  not  blind — I  see  ;  I  am  not  hungry — I  am 
filled  ;  I  am  not  naked — I  am  clothed  as  with  kings'  apparel"  ? 
Woe  be  to  those  dwellers  upon  earth  who  think  they  need  nothing. 
Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit.  When  we  are  consciously  poor  and 
needy  we  are  in  the  most  salvable  condition.  If  God  should  deal 
with  penalties,  and  justice  should  be  the  scepter,  we  deserve,  every 
one  of  us,  to  be  cast  out,  as  uncongenial,  unsymmetrical,  unsym- 
pathizing  with  the  divine  nature.     But,  blessed  be  God,  he  deals  j  s 


UNPROFITABLE  SERVANTS.  S7 

a  father.  He  forgives,  he  spares,  he  helps,  he  will  save.  And  how 
little  should  we  who  are  the  objects  of  his  constant  benefaction,  we 
'  who  are  his  perpetual  beneficiaries — how  little  should  we  any  more 
walk  with  lordly  pride  !  How  should  we  cease  to  be  filled  with  seli- 
conceit  !  How  utterly  are  these  qualities  aside  from  our  true  con- 
dition ! 

Let  us  bow  down  our  heads,  then,  every  day  stimulating  our- 
selves for  a  better  performance  of  known  duty,  and  a  larger  develop- 
ment of  the  Spirit  of  God.  Let  us  say,  every  day,  "I  have  done 
only  that  which  I  saw,  and  that  in  the  most  imperfect  manner  j  and 
I  am  an  unprofitable  servant." 


PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

In  the  midst  of  our  weakness,  and  out  of  all'our  troubles,  we  look  to  thee, 
O  Lord  God  of  our  salvation ;  for  our  sufflcienoy  is  of  thee,  and  not  of  our- 
selves. We  are  not  only  surrounded  by  enemies  and  causes  of  mischief 
innumerable,  but  we  are  inwardly  wicked.  Nor  has  one  of  ns  the  source  of 
life  in  his  own  hand.  We  cannot  control  our  breath;  and  this  curious  and 
wonderful  machinery  of  our  nature  we  cannot  ourselves  understand  nor 
maintain  in  its  integrity.  All  the  causes  of  life,  and  of  health,  and  of  pros- 
perity, move  higher  than  our  reach,  and  but  the  ends  of  them  are  let  down 
to  us.  Far  above  all  human  thought,  far  within,  beyond  the  reach  of  man's 
inquisitiveness,  thou  art ;  and  thou  art  the  Author,  as  thou  shalt  be  the  Fin- 
isher of  all  things.  In  thee  all  things  do  live.  Thy  wisdom,  and  not  their 
own  except  as  it  is  reflected  from  thee,  does  guide  them.  It  is  thy  power 
that  gives  law  its  ministration.  It  is  thy  providence  that  makes  all  things 
work  harmoniously.  It  is  from  thee  that  recovery  comes,  so  that  when  we 
have  transgressed  thy  laws  we  still  find  our  way  back  again.  All  things  are 
of  thee,  and  in  thee ;  and  in  the  last  great  day  all  things  shall  be  to  thee,  to 
thine  honor  and  glory.  Accept  our  hearts'  gladness,  and  our  thanksgiving, 
that  in  thee  thus  we  do  live  and  move  and  have  our  being.  Our  ignorance 
is  such,  our  temptableness  is  such,  our  weakness  to  resist  and  our  strength 
to  do  wrong  are  such,  we  are  so  blinded  by  past  transgressions,  and  by 
habits,  that  if  we  were  left  to  our  own  saving,  not  one  of  us  would  find  the 
way  of  peace.  It  is  thy  paternal  and  redeeming  love,  it  is  thy  grace  in  for- 
giveness, in  which  we  have  hope — and  in  that  only. 

O  Lord  our  God,  we  commit  ourselves  to  thee  as  children  to  a  parent. 
We  commit  ourselves  to  thee  with  much  experience  of  our  own  wayward- 
ness. We  have  tried  to  govern  ourselves.  We  have  tried  to  overcome  easily 
besetting  sins.  AVe  have  tried  to  resist  the  evil  that  meets  us  on  every  hand. 
We  have  tried,  in  the  midst  of  this  warfare  of  life,  to  establish  in  ourselves, 
in  comely  proportions,  the  ideal  of  a  true  manhood,  so  that  we  shall  be  in 
harmony  with  ourselves,  with  our  fellow  men,  with  the  world  that  now  is, 
and  with  the  world  that  is  to  come.  And  it  is  too  much  for  us.  Even  to 
conceive  of  the  greatness  of  this  problem  of  life  is  more  than  we  can  do. 
And  to  accomplish  in  ourselves  all  that  which  is  made  possible ;  to  round  out 
and  fill  up  with  virtue  and  piety  all  the  elements  of  our  being ;  to  carry  our- 


38  UNPROFITABLE  SERVANTS. 

selves  from  day  to  day  fiill-clothed  mth  the  power  of  goodness— we  know 
not  how.  Everything  is  our  enemy.  Everything  breaks  in  to  provoke  us, 
and  to  stir  pride  unduly.  Everything  is  weakening  in  us  the  power  of  con-  , 
science,  or  attempting  so  to  do;  and  goodness  is  as  the  morning  cloud  and  the 
early  dew.  From  day  to  day  we  see  the  Ijetter  way,  and  are  pursuing  the 
worse.  The  good  that  we  would  do  we  do  not,  and  the  evil  that  we  would 
not,  behold,  it  is  upon  us.  And  our  hope  is  no  longer  in  our  constancy,  nor 
in  any  part  of  ourselves.  We  are  not  wise  to  be  pilots  and  guide  ourselves 
through  this  bestormed  channel.  We  look  to  thee.  Thou  must  be  Leader, 
Pilot,  or  there  will  be  shipwreck,  fatal  and  forever. 

O  Lord  God,  we  come  to  thee  with  all  the  earnestness  and  desire  of  our 
souls,  and  all  the  meaning  of  immortality  before  us,  and  all  the  hope  of  per- 
fect men  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  all  the  vision  of  the  blessedness  and  joy  in  the 
better  land,  with  all  yearnings  and  aspirations ;  and  with  all  our  souls  we 
beseech  of  thee  that,  as  in  days  past,  so  in  the  days  to  come,  only  more 
abundantly,|thou  wilt  guide  us.  Pardoning,  wilt  thou  inspire  us;  and  inspir- 
ing, wilt  thou  direct.  And  wilt  thou  accomplish  in  us  that  which  our  halting 
steps  and  feeble  hands  in  this  work  will  never  do.  May  we  Uve  in  thee, 
remembering  thy  providence,  and  knowing  that  all  things  shall  work  to- 
gether for  good.  May  we,  in  the  midst  of  despondency  and  shame  and 
remorse  and  discouragement,  still  remember  that  thou  didst  go  down  to 
death  through  darkness  and  suffering  and  pain,  to  succor  those  that  are  in 
darkness  and  pain  and  death;  and  may  we  lift  up  our  eyes  to  the  throne  of 
mercy.  May  we  remember  that  our  God  is  the  present  help  in  time  of  need. 
May  we  remember  that  thine  hand  is  not  reluctantly  reached  forth.  Nor  is 
it  ever  empty.  It  is  fuller  by  that  which  it  spares  than  by  that  which  it 
keeps.  May  we  remember  that  thy  name  is,  Him  that  does  exceedingly 
abundantly  more  than  we  can  ask  or  think. 

O  that  we  might  come  to  the  throne  of  grace  in  time  of  need,  and  receive 
sympathy  and  succor  and  salvation  !  Grant  that  every  wandering  soul  in 
thy  presence  may  this  morning  feel  that  he  is  with  God.  May  every  soixl  that 
has  forgotten  his  Father's  house,  may  every  child  that  has  gone  astray  and 
forsaken  the  God  of  his  youth,  this  morning  hear,  with  the  soul,  thy  silent 
voice  calling  him  back.  O  that  there  might  be  many  footsteps  taken  again 
toward  the  threshold  of  prayer  to-day  !  O  that  those  private  feelings  which 
rise  in  many  bosoms  might  this  day  be  quickened  by  the  Holy  Ghost  into 
effectual  life !  O  that  thou  wouldst  stir  up  the  consciences  of  those  who  are 
dead  in  trespasses  and  in  sins!  O  that  thou  wouldst  beat  down  the  lofty 
pride  of  those  whose  pride  is  as  a  mountain  between  their  souls  and  thee! 
O  that  thou  wouldst  sicken  many  a  one  of  the  sweets  of  wickedness,  and 
make  men  fiel  to-day  how  little  there  is  in  them,  and  how  little  is  in  all  this 
life,  that  can  satisfy  immortality  in  the  soul !  May  there  be  many  who  shall 
look  away  from  time  to  eternity;  who  shall  look  away  from  perishable 
things  to  imperishable  things;  from  the  body  to  the  spirit. 

Grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  we  may  hear  men  asking,  What  shall  we  do  to 
be  saved  ?  And  may  they  be  guided  to  thee.  Higher  than  the  storm,  higher 
than  the  reach  of  temptation,  higher  than  sin— there  may  their  thoughts  at 
last  rest  in  the  bosom  of  their  God. 

Grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  thy  blessing  may  rest  upon  all  the  households 
that  are  here  represented.  Bless  the  children  and  the  youth.  Bless  those 
who  are  rearing  up  the  young.  Strengthen  those  who  are  in  the  midst  of 
life,  and  are  under  its  keenest  pressures  and  temptations.  Draw  near  to 
those  who  are  passing  from  youth  into  age ;  and  to  the  old  who  stand  upon 
their  last  years.  Grant  that  each  one  may  have  the  grace  that  his  circum- 
stances and  nature  and  character  require.    And  we  beseech  of  thee  that  we 


UNPROFITABLE  SERVANTS.  39 

may  all  feel  how  fast  we  are  going ;  how  we  are  leaving  swiftly  behind  us 
the  things  which  are  most  clear  to  the  natural  man ;  how  we  are  seeing  our 
years  emptied  of  their  strength.  O  that  we  may  look  forward,  and  inquire 
what  is  before  us.  And  may  we  all  of  us  count  things  to  be  most  our  treasure 
which  shall  endure  the  test  of  death,  and  the  face  of  God,  and  the  ordeal  of 
the  judgment.  Grant  that  we  may  so  live  that  when  we  are  passing  from 
this  life,  the  spirit  within  shall  be  mighty,  and  shall  live  again  and  forever 
in  the  light  of  God,  in  the  love  of  Christ,  in  the  sympathy  of  holiness.  In 
the  power  of  all  that  is  true  and  noble  in  thee  may  our  souls  find  their  life. 
And  may  we  draw  near  to  thee  not  as  men  from  out  of  the  wilderness  un- 
known; may  we  draw  near,  not  to  escape  into  heaven  as  by  fire;  may  we 
draw  near  to  find  the  gates  wide  open,  and  the  throng  coming  forth,  cheer- 
ing us  and  comforting  us,  and  multitudes  taking  us  by  the  hand  in  great 
joy,  and  bearing  us  up  to  the  throne  of  the  Father.  And  there  we  will  cast 
our  crowns  before  thee,  shouting.  Not  unto  us,  not  unto  us,  but  unto  thy 
name,  be  the  praise  of  our  salvation,  forever  and  ever.    Atnen. 


PRAYER  AFTER  THE  SERMOK 

Our  Father,  we  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  look  in  mercy  upon  us,  as 
thou  must,  or  we  must  perish.  When  we  look  at  ourselves,  and  see  what  is 
our  nature,  and  Avhat  are  all  its  parts,  and  what  are  its  results  and  bounds 
in  life,  we  are  almost  in  doubt  of  thee,  of  heaven,  and  of  ourselves;  and  we 
are  afraid  to  trust.  We  fear  lest  God  should  cast  such  unprofitable  servants 
away,  and  have  no  more  to  do  with  them.  And  yet,  thine  infinite  grace, 
tbfne  infinite  tenderness,  looks  upon  us  with  compassion.  Like  as  a  father 
pitieth  his  children,  so  the  Lord  pitieth  them  that  fear  him.  Grant  that  thy 
goodness  may  lead  us  to  repentance.  May  we  not  think  of  ourselves  more 
highly  than  we  ought  to  think,  but  think  soberly,  according  as  God  hath 
dealt  to  every  man  the  measure  of  faith. 

And  now,  we  pray  that  we  may  go  home  carrying  with  us  the  sacred 
truths  of  the  sanctuary,  that  we  may  profit  withal.  Lead  us  through  all  the 
way  of  life.  And  when  at  last  we  lay  aside  these  bodies,  with  their  imper- 
fections, and  the  world  with  its  temptations,  give  us  an  exceeding  abundant 
entrance  into  the  kingdom  of  thy  glory. 

We  ask  it  for  Christ's  sake.    Amen, 


in. 


The  Reward  of  Loving. 


INVOCyVTION. 

We  acknowledge  thee,  Almighty  God,  our  Father,  and  thee,  O  Lord  our 
Saviour,  and  thee,  Holy  Spirit  and  Enlightener.  We  draw  near  that  we  may 
pour  out  our  hearts,  and  with  filial  love  and  true  devotion,  this  day,  make 
known  our  thanksgiving  and  our  i)raise.  Yet,  how  shall  we  rise  and  come  into 
thy  presence?  Descend  thou,  O  God,  to  us.  Give  to  us  something  of  thy  life. 
May  we  find  thee,  though  we  cannot  ascend  into  the  heavens.  For  thou  art 
everywhere,  and  thou  canf-t  communicate  thyself  to  the  humblest  and  to  the 
most  needy.  Thou  wilt  dwell  with  the  broken-hearted  and  with  the  contrite 
in  spirit.  Grant,  then,  this  day,  that  wo  may  he  filled  with  thy  presence, 
and  have  by  thy  Spirit  the  revelations  of  truth;  that  we  may  be  able 
to  give  forth  in  thanksgiving  and  praise  that  which  is  divine,  and  receive 
from  thee  all  needed  gift^  into  good  and  honest  hearts.  And  may  the 
services  of  the  sanctuary,  and  all  the  utterances  of  this  day,  please  thee.  We 
ask  it  for  Christ  the  Redeemer's  sake.    Amen. 


THE  EE¥AED  OE  LOYING. 


**  And  we  know  tbat  all  things  work  together  for  good  to  them  that  love 
God,  to  them  who  are  the  called  according  to  his  purpose."— Rom.  VIII.,  28. 


You  will  take  notice,  for  instance,  of  this  utterance,  "And  we 
know."  It  is  not  the  language  of  men  that  dream,  and  suspect,  and 
think  it  Tikely,  or  think  it  possible,  or  jDresume,  according  to  the 
modern  stylo  of  revery,  which  is  called  religious  philosophy^  often. 
It  is  the  language  of  a  man  who  is  speaking'  out  of  the  fullness  of 
conviction.  And  that  which  he  knows  is  the  most  astonishing  of  all. 
If  there  has  been  anything  in  this  world  that  has  given  pause  to 
wisdom,  and  made  goodness  itself  hold  its  breath,  it  has  been  the 
workings  out,  under  a  supposed  moral  government,  of  mischief  and 
evil.  The  cross-purposes;'  the  conflicts,  the  disasters,  the  apparent 
supremacy  of  that  which  is  bad,  the  apparent  disgrace  and  defeat 
of  that  which  is  good,  make  it  seem  as  if  the  whole  world  were  mixed 
together,  and  in  a  foaming,  swirling  confusion.  As  far  back  in  the 
earliest  periods  as  Avhen  that  most  aflx'Cting  and  most  graphic  pas- 
sage which  I  read  in  your  hearing  was  uttered,  men's  feet  slipped, 
and  their  confidence  in  God  failed  them,  and  they  were  ready  to 
say,  as  wicked  men  are  represented  as  saying,  "Doth  God  know? 
Doth  the  Most  High  understand  ?  Is  there  any  intelligence  ?  Is 
there  any  knowledge  ?" 

When,  therefore,  the  apostle  looks  out  from  all  this  stormy  scene 
of  secular  affairs  and  experiences,  and  says, 

"  We  hnow  that  all  things  work  together  for  good  to  them  that  love 
God," 

he  rises  to  a  height  of  sublime  prophesy  and  insight,  or  else  of  sub- 
lime impudence.     It  is  presumption,  or  it  is  inspiration. 

"  We  know  that  all  things  work  together  for  good  to  them  thai  love 
God.'' 

Here,  after  all,  is  a  qualifying  phrase.     It  is  not  that  all  things 

work  together  for  good  to  everybody  ;  and,  as  the   context  will 

show,  it  is  not  that  all  things  Avork  together  for  good  even  to  good 

men  in  all  the  respects  in  which  they  set  out  to  have  good,  in  their 

plans  ;  but  every  good  man  Avho  loves  God  will  find  in  the  end  and 

issue  of  his  life,  that  all  things  have  wrought  together  for  good  to 

Sunday  Morning,  March  27,  1870.    Lesson :  Psa.  LXXin.  Hymna  (Plymouth  Col- 
lection) :  Nos.  104,  545. 


44  THE  BE W ABB  OF  LOVING. 

him.  He  t\  ill  find  that,  whatever  may  have  been  the  intermediate 
experience,  the  ultimate,  the  outcome,  of  all  things,  has  been  good. 
So  tliat,  when  at  last  our  life  is  unfolded  again  before  us,  in  another 
sphere,  and  we  judge  with  the  superior  judgment  of  the  after  state, 
we  shall,  I  apprehend,  looking  through  it  all,  atom  by  atom,  section 
by  section,  and  period  by  period,  be  satisfied  with  the  whole  plan 
and  outlay  and  outplay.  Then  we  shall  see  things  to  have  been  in- 
finitely wise,  and  infinitely  benevolent  as  well  as  wise.  When  we 
see  Him  as  he  is,  we  shall  see  things  as  they  have  been,  and  shall  be 
satisfied.  When  we  see  God's  likeness,  we  shall  be  more  than  satis- 
fied with  the  divine  administration  in  this  world. 

Now,  it  is  not  hard  for  men  to  suffer.  It  is  not  difiicult  for  men 
to  bear  pain,  to  be  disappointed,  to  be  hindered,  to  be  thwarted,  to 
be  put  upon  their  mettle.  So  far  from  its  being  difiicult,  we  have 
formed  our  idea  of  manhood  to  include  the  cheerful  bearing  of 
severe  things,  A  man  who  professes  to  be  a  soldier,  and  cries  at 
rain,  and  at  winds,  and  at  exposure,  and  at  poor  food  and  little  of  it, 
we  laugh  to  scorn.  Pretty  soldier  he  is — a  man  who  professes  to  be 
a  hero,  and  has  enough  of  the  hero  to  admire  heroism,  but  cannot 
emulate  it !  A  hero  is  one  who  is  superior  to  his  circumstances. 
History  is  never  done  depicting  those  men  who  could  live  in  dep- 
rivation, who  could  live  hungry  and  thirsty  and  needy,  and  who 
could  live  persecuted  and  outcast,  greater  than  the  age  in  which  they 
lived.  And  we  need  such  men  yet.  Men  they  were  who  could  sow 
in  one  year  seed  the  fruit  of  Avhich  they  did  not  reap  in  a  score  of 
years.  We  have  raised  our  conception  of  manhood  upon  the  very 
possibility  of  patient  suffering,  and  cheerfulness  in  suffering.  That 
is  not  all :  the  roads  even  to  earthly  good  lie  in  the  main  through 
suflTering.  We  do  not  bring  up  our  children  to  the  idea  that  a  truly 
happy  life  is  a  life  in  which  they  are  not  obliged  to  learn  anything. 
What  do  you  think  of  children  to  whom  it  is  said,  every  day,  "  Your 
father  is  rich  ;  Avhy  do  you  study  a  profession?  If  I  were  in  your 
p\ace,  I  would  not  trouble  myself  to  prepare  for  any  pursuit,  I 
wovxld  take  life  easy.  I  would  not  bear  any  burdens."  Everybody 
knows  that  he  who.  listens  to  such  counsel  is  foolish.  He  is  a  candi- 
date for  destruction  who  does  not  feel  the  necessity,  or  understand 
the  wisdom,  of  doing  something  useful.  The  idea  of  secular  and 
-social  development  should  be  that  a  man  in  order  to  prosper  should 
be  able  to  bear  something,  to  endure  something,  to  achieve  some- 
thing, to  deny  himself,  and  to  so  live  as  to  control  his  lower  nature 
in  favor  of  his  higher  nature.  That  ought  to  enter  into  the  very 
lowest  conception  of  education.  But  it  ought  not  to  stop  there. 
Before  the  child  goes  out  in  life  he  is  disciplined  more  or  less  in  the 


TEE  BEWAEB  OF  LOVING.  45 

family  ;  but  the  moment  he  is  broken  off  from  the  parent  tree,  and 
stands  by  his  own  root,  every  ambitious  and  energetic  young  person 
longs  for  the  chance  to  try  his  endurance.  See  how  men  will  go, 
and  gladly  go,  to  China,  and  India ;  see  how  they  will  swelter 
through  a  score  of  years,  bearing  fevers,  and  annoyances,  and  ab- 
sence from  home,  and  heart-sickness  ;  see  how  they  will  work  during 
all  this  time,  and  in  the  midst  of  all  these  sufferings — and  for  what  ? 
That  at  the  end  of  these  years  they  may  be  able  to  return  home 
victorious.  This  prospect  keeps  them  up,  and  enables  them  to  en- 
dure the  toil,  and  the  deiH'ivation,  and  the  disagreeable  features  of 
the  life  which  they  are  living.  How  do  men  go  to  the  very  extreme 
of  climate  for  the  sake  of  that  which  is  to  make  them  illusti^ious  ! 
How  will  they  go  through  the  six  months'  night  oi  the  polar  seas, 
losing  health,  sacrificing  what  God  meant  should  be  the  very  mar- 
row of  life  !  They  do  it  cheerfully,  without  a  murmur.  And  they 
do  it  for  what  ?  Not  to  achieve  wealth,  but  to  achieve  that  which 
is  better — fame.  How  do  we  find  men  rising  early,  toiling  late,  and 
sacrificing  all  the  ease  of  life,  for  the  sake  of  the  future  !  They  are 
building  up  that  which  they  desire  to  attain  in  their  imagination  ; 
and  so  long  as  they  have  hope  of  reaching  it,  they  are  willing  to  go 
twenty  years  or  more,  dressing  poorly,  eating  plainly,  and  toiling 
severely.  Give  men  to  see  that  by  and  by  they  shall  have  rest,  or 
that  they  shall  accomplish  the  purpose  at  which  they  aim,  and  they 
will-  cheerfully  take  hardship,  and  self-denial,  and  even  'pain.  It  is 
not  hard  for  men  to  put  up  with  annoyances,  and  go  through  trou- 
bles, and  bear  burdens,  and  pass  sleepless  nights,  and  suffer  from 
disease,  if  only  they  can  achieve  what  they  long  to  achieve.  Giant- 
like, they  go  through  these  things,  and  all  they  want  is  hope  that  it 
is  not  for  nothing. 

See,  then,  what  the  apostle  says  in  the  context : 

*' We  are  saved  by  hope.  But  hope  that  is  seen  is  not  hope ;  for  what  a 
man  seeth,  why  doth  he  hope  for  ?  But  if  we  hope  for  that  we  see  not,  then 
do  we  with  patience  wait  for  it." 

Hoping  for  future  pleasures  or  benefits,  we  are  content.  For  the 
sake  of  that  which  we  see  in  the  lower  life,  we  are  willing  to  deny 
ourselves  and  to  endure,  if  w^e  only  have  a  reasonable  hope  of  gain- 
ing it  at  last.  And  the  apostle  says,  "  A  true  Christian  man,  with 
a  true  Christian  experience,  is  saved  by  hope.  He  lives  with  so 
large  a  view  of  life  that  when  he  experiences  buffetings  and  self- 
denials  and  trials,  he  is  armed  against  them,  and  is  able  to  see  that 
all  things  do  work  together  for  good." 

That  which  wears  men  out,  is  having  pain,  and  burdens,  and 
vexations,  which  are  useless  and  remediless.     Suspense,  in  which 


46  TEE  BE WABD  OF  LOVING. 

fear  rasps,  grinds  down  life  faster  than  anything  else.     And  then, 
next  to  that  is  despair,  despondency,  the  sense  of  bearing  pain,  in 
which  there  is  no  benefit  or  use.     But  all  pain,  all  suffering,  all  an- 
noyance, in  this  world,  if  it  can  be  seen  to  have  some  issue  in  good 
hereafter,  is  easily  borne!     All  we  want  is  the  certaintj^,  or  the  hope 
that  the  result  will  be  good.     When  we  first  look  at  it,  it  does  not 
seem  to  be  true  that  all  things  in  this  world  work  together  for  the 
benefit  of  anybody,  and  certainly  not  for  the  benefit  of  good  folks. 
But  men  will  admit,  I  think,  that  in  ordinary  times,  when  there  is 
no  revolution,  when  nature  is  prompt,  as  it  were,  to  excess,  when 
her  laws  are  unimpeded  and  unthwarted,  the  ways  of  righteousness 
average  more  happiness  in  secular  things  than  any  other  ways. 
Honesty,  sincerity,  afiectionate  kindness  one  toward  another,  truth- 
fulness, industry,  frugality — these  qualities  have,  from  the  beginning 
of  the  world,  averaged  more  happiness  than  any  other  qualities,  al- 
though revolutions  have  struck  through  them,  and  they  have  been 
subject  to  great  exceptions  apparently.     In  the  conflict  of  the  world 
exceptions  have  been  so  many,  the  world  has  been  so  tossed  up  and 
down  like  a  ship  on  the  ocean  in  a  perpetual  storm,  that  the  good 
have  not  always  been  in  the  ascendant.   It  has  not  always  been  true 
that  men  were  as  happy  as  they  deserved  to  be,  measuring  accord- 
ing  to   the  human  standard  of  merit  or  demerit.     It  is  not  true 
that  the  jjurest  men  are  the  most  in  esteem.     It  is  not  true  that 
truthful    men    and   honorable   men   are    the   most  prosperous    in 
this   world.      Although   it   is   the  tendency  of  moral   qualities  to 
redound   to  a  man's   good ;   although   he   is  more   likely,    accord- 
ing to  the  constitution  of  the  globe,  to  be  prospered,  who  follows 
the   Avays  of  righteousness,  than  any  other  man,  yet  it  does   not 
follow  in  actual  practice,  that  good  men  are  the  best  ofi" — far  from 
it.     We  still  see  that  bad  men  have  all  that   heart   could   wish; 
that  their  eyes  stand   ou.t  with  fatness;  that  there  are  no  bonds 
in  their  life  or  death ;  that  they  are  unrestrained  and  lawless,  both 
in  living  and  dying ;  that  they  are  proud  and  haughty.    But  we  see, 
on  the  other  .hand,  that  their  career  comes  to  an  end  very  suddenly. 
God  seldom  allows  a  wicked  career  Avhich  has  been  prosperous  to 
go  beyond  the  man  himself     He  visits  it  on  his  children  if  not  on 
him ;  though  he  usually  visits  it  on  him.     The  aspiration,  however, 
for  holiness,  being  added  to  the  strife  for  worldly  success,  good  men 
do  not  seem  to  be  blessed  even  spiritually.     If  a  man  submits  him- 
self to  his  disposition ;  if  he  has  no  particular  desire  to  develop  rare 
manhood,  and  to  reach  to  higher  qualities  and  nobler  insights,  it  is 
quite  possible  for  him,  if  he  be  a  calm,  placid  man,  to  flow  down  the 
stream  of  life,  and,  taking  one  time  with  another,  to  have  a  fair  aver- 


TEE  BEWABB  OF  LOVING.  47 

• 
age  of  life.  But  if  a  man  wants  to  develop  true  Christian  manhood  ; 
if  that  is  more  precious  to  him  than  all  other  things ;  then,  on  ex- 
amining his  heart,  you  shall  find  that  his  life  is  not  easy  to  him ;  that 
ambition  and  aspiration  in  spiritual  things  are  continually  bringing 
him  into  conflict  with  his  surroundings,  with  himself,  with  his  fel- 
lows ;  and  that  his  life  is  perpetually  clouded,  and  watered  by  his 
own  tears. 

Hear  what  the  apostle  says  in  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  first  Cor- 
inthians : 

"If  in  this  life  only,  we  have  hope  in  Christ,  we  are  of  all  men  most 
miserable." 

In  the  fifth  chapter  of  Romans  he  says : 

"We  glory  in  tribulations  also;  knowing  that  tribulation  worketh  pa- 
tience; and  patience,  experience;  and  experience,  hope;  and  hope  maketh 
not  ashamed ;  because  the  love  of  God  is  shed  abroad  in  our  hearts  by  the 
Holy  Ghost,  which  is  given  unto  us." 

In  other  words,  We  know  that  the  hunger  and  thirst  after  right- 
eousness which  shall  be  fulfilled  in  every  man  is  one  which  takes  him 
through  trouble  near  to  its  fulfillment.  So  that  if  a  man  be  good  in 
the  moral  sense  of  the  term,  and  good  in  the  spiritual  sense  of  the 
term,  if  you  look  at  his  life,  it  does  not  seem  as  though  all  things 
did  work  together  for  his  good. 

But  let  us  add  some  other  elements,  and  then  let  us  look  again. 

First,  it  is  to  those  who  love  God  that  the  apostle  said  that  all 
things  should  work  together  for  good.  They  do  not  regard  all  their 
good  as  secular.  They  do  not  regard  that  alone  as  good  which  the 
hand  can  handle.  A  man's  life  consists  not  in  the  abundance  of  the 
things  which  he  possesses.  His  good  lies  in  his  afiections.  In  the 
household  the  soul's  riches  give  only  that  which  everlastingly  the 
soul  desires — peace,  happiness,  the  confidence  which  love  breeds, 
and  that  intersphering  intercourse  of  love  in  which  each  thought  of 
one  rings  on  the  heart  of  another  as  the  stroke  of  a  bell,  and  fills  the 
house  full  of  all  the  plentitudes  and  confidences  of  love.  And  is  there 
any  poverty  so  great  as  to  make  such  a  household  poor?  Is  there 
any  misfortune  so  great  as  to  disturb  the  happiness  of  those  who 
highly  esteem  each  other,  and  who  dwell  in  a  true  and  i-efined  love? 
And  what  can  befall  those  who  love  God,  and  are  conscious  of  being 
loved  by  him  again  ?  What  can  harm  them  ?  What  can  diminish 
the  flow  of  their  happiness,  provided  their  souls  drink  at  this  foun- 
tain, and  are  warmed  at  this  fire?  This  one  single  circumstance 
settles  the  whole  controversy. 

"  All  thiogs  shall  work  together  for  good  to  them  that  love  God." 

Loving  God,  they  know  what  the  Avhole  world-life  is  worth.  After 
all,  love  is  the  Avine  of  existence.  AVhen  you  have  taken  that,  you 
have  taken  the  most  precious  drop  that  there  is  in  the  cluster.  Wlien 


48  TRB  BEWAED  OF  LOVING. 

• 

one  has  once  risen  to  the  experience  of  love,  and  then  learned  how 
to  abide  in  it,  why  can  he  not  very  calmly  say,  "  I  care  not  what 
happens :  I  have  the  only  thing  which  makes  life  itself  of  any  value 
— the  love  of  God  shed  abroad  in  my  soul,  as  a  life  and  as  a  power. 
What  bitterness  can  there  be  where  thei-e  is  such  sweetness  ?  What 
fear  can  there  be  where  perfect  love  casts  out  fear  ?  What  weakness 
can  there  be  where  the  might  of  the  eternal  God  rests  perpetually 
on  the  eternal  soul  ?  What  treasure  can  there  be  where  all  things 
are  owned  for  love,  and  where  is  mutual  and  reciprocal  Fatherhood 
and  Sonship — where  all  that  there  is  in  the  external  soul  is  held  for 
the  benefit  of  all  other  souls  ? 

"All  things  [shall]  work  together  for  good  to  them  that  love  God." 

Come  weal,  come  woe,  come  pain,  come  pleasure :  there  is  little 
but  love ;  and  still  less  if  one  is  in  the  transport  of  a  true  and  noble 
love.  How  many  have  it  ?  The  foretaste  and  glimpse  of  this  truth, 
the  dawnings  of  that  love  which,  I  trust,  comes  to  every  one,  at  least, 
once  in  his  lifetime,  where  nature  itself  changes  to  one  great  chorus 
— alas,  that  it  should  not  continue  for  years,  during  which  the 
heavens  have  a  meaning  they  never  had  before,  and  seem  an  un- 
rolled scroll  of  the  new  life  of  love.  When  one,  coming  forth,  hears 
the  very  trees  congratulating  him,  and  all  the  leaves  clapping  their 
hands  for  joy ;  when  the  minutest  things  in  nature  partake  of  the 
benison  of  a  soul  that  is  in  the  first  great  revelation  of  love,  and  it 
turns  aside  the  foot  that  the  worm  may  live  on — then  kindness  and 
benevolence,  in  this  new-found  feeling,  makes  the  world  seem  beau- 
tiful, and  the  soul  is  lifted  up.  Is  there  not  in  this  some  premoni- 
tion, some  indication  of  the  great  truth  that  the  soul  that  is  once 
filled  with  the  truest  divine  love  is  made  superior  to  circumstances 
like  these,  and  pours  out  all  its  own  bright  experiences  ?  This  is  the 
love  which  makes  the  darkest  places  bright,  and  out  of  its  own  re- 
verberating happiness  comes  back  again  to  the  source  from  whence 
it  sprang. 

"  All  things  work  together  for  good  to  them  that  love  God." 

Is  that  true  ?  Yes.  He  that  has  inherited  the  love  of  God — 
what  has  the  world  more  to  give  him  ?  What  can  the  world  reach 
to  tabc  away  from  him  ?     He  has  the  chief  thing  already. 

Such  a  person  believes  in  a  divine  providence.  He  cannot  but 
believe  in  it.  And  that  will  be  a  source  of  exquisite  satisfaction. 
Though  he  cannot  understand  the  order  of  things,  there  is  the  peace 
of  the  experience.  Believing  that  "  all  things  work  together  for 
o-ood  to  those  who  love  God,"  it  becomes  a  pleasure  to  stand  in  the 
consciousness  that  God  wishes  us  to  endure  and  to  sufier.  All  that 
a  true  soldier  wants  to  know,  is,  that  he  has  understood  his  orders.  If 
the  word  is,  "  Stand  at  that  hill,  hold  that  fringe  of  woods,  until 


THE  BEWABD  OF  LOVING.  49 

every  man  is  cut  off,"  that  is  enough.  And  he  only  who  does  hold 
it  is  thought  worthy  to  take  the  crown.  That  is  the  reward  of  him 
alone  who  will  give  up  his  life  dearly  rather  than  budge  one  inch. 
And  the  consciousness  of  fidelity  is  itself  remuneration  to  a  true 
Boul.  He  will  stand  and  endure  the  paid  and  the  suffering  without 
a  murmur,  being  consoled  by  the  belief  that  all  things  shall  work 
together  for  good  to  him,  because  he  loves  God. 

We  are  apt  to  think  that  having  our  own  way  is  the  pleasantest 
thing  in  the  world.  It  may  be  a  pleasure.  I  will  not  deny  that  there 
is  some  pleasure  in  it.  Most  men  like  to  have  their  own  way,  and  take 
special  pleasure  in  things  which  go  as  they  want  to  have  them.  But 
there  is  more  pleasure  in  giving  up  one's  own  way  than  in  having  it. 
And  that  pleasure  is  in  proportion  as  one  is  strong  of  will.  It  is 
hard  for  a  strong-willed  man  to  bow  down  and  yield  submission  and 
obedience  to  a  weak-willed  man.  It  is  hard  for  an  elephant  to  say 
his  prayers  to  an  ant.  When  society  is  so  out  of  joint  that  men 
find  that  they  are  under  the  rule  and  dominion  of  minims,  and  that 
the  greater  is  subordinate  to  the  less,  it  is  discordant  and  offensive. 
But  once  let  a  man  feel  that  he  is  himself  his  own  master,  having 
wisdom  and  nobility  and  rectitude  on  his  side,  and  there  is  nothing 
which  he  learns  so  much  to  desire  as  somebody  that  he  can  look  up 
to.  One  gets  tired  and  lonesome  without  such  a  person.  There  is 
no  greater  sweetness  in  this  world  than  that  of  leaning,  and  learn- 
ing implicitly  to  follow,  provided  you  have  one  to  follow  who  calls 
out  your  respect,  and  inspires  your  confidence  and  your  love.  And 
a  true  man,  loving  God,  has  the  joy  of  believing  that  God  plants  him 
in  the  order  of  his  providence  where  he  is  to  stand ;  that  from 
day  to  day  his  course  is  marked  out  for  him ;  and  that  in  bearing 
and  suffering  and  achieving,  he  is  fulfilling  the  wishes  of  God,  There 
is  no  greater  pleasure  than  the  consciousness  that  we  are  obeying 
God's  commands.  The  faithful  child  of  God  says,  "  Speak,  Lord  ; 
thy  servant  heareth ;"  and  in  that  the  whole  heart  is  filled  with 
ecstasy. 

Secondly,  a  true  love  to  God  kindles  the  conception  of  things  far 
higher  than  mere  temporalities.  No  one,  I  think,  can  love  truly, 
without  instantly  finding  that  Love  is  the  best  schoolmaster.  It  is 
the  most  stimulating  to  growth  of  all  things  in  the  world.  It  is  the 
most  refining  and  the  most  enriching.  And  when  one  loves  God  truly 
and  deeply,  it  sets  him  upon  such  a  desire  for  improvement  within, 
of  thought  and  feeling  and  impulse ;  it  so  works  upon  his  spiritual 
ideal  of  manhood,  that  it  gives  him  another  standard,  and  he  be- 
gins to  feel  that  "  all  things  shall  work  together  for  good"  in 
another  sense  than  that  which  he  has  thought  of.     He  may  have 


50  TEE  BEWABD  OF  LOVING. 

thought  of  houses  and  lands,  and  brothers  and  sisters,  and  ruler  and 
realm ;  but  after  a  little  he  begins  to  feel,  "  That  which  is  done  in 
me  is  transcendently  more  important  than  that  which  is  done  for 
me."  And  then  comes  up  that  saying  of  the  Lord,  so  full  of  meaning, 
"The  kingdom  of  God  is  within  you." 

What  outward  events  and  influences  do  to  a  man's  inward  state, 
is  some  measure  of  his  thrift  and  prosperity  and  happiness.  And 
blessed  is  the  man  who  can  say,  "  I  have  grown  more  patient,  and 
therefore  I  am  happier ;  I  have  grown  wiser  and  better  by  the 
things  which  I  have  sufiered."  Once  take  the  interior  manhood  as 
the  measure  in  life,  and  see  how  differently  one  looks  at  things. 

I  think  there  are  none  who  have  ever  in  times  past  experienced 
the  pressure  of  bereavement  without  a  sense  of  wonder  that  the 
apostle  should  have  said, 

"No  afaiction  for  the  present  is  joyous,  but  grievous ;  but  afterward  it 
worketh  the  peaceable  fruit  of  righteousness."' 

The  smitten  heart  always  thinks,  "  Affliction  will  never  work 
out  in  me  anything  but  despair.  I  never  can  get  over  it  nor  bear 
it."  There  is  a  kiiid  of  paralyzing  influence  in  afliiction,  particularly 
on  sensitive  natures.  But  is  there  one  single  crushing  afliiction  that 
came  upon  you  ten  years  ago,  of  which,  when  you  look  back  upon 
it  in  long  perspective,  you  cannot  say,  "  Afterwards  it  did  work  out 
the  peaceable  fruit  of  righteousness  in  me"  ? 

What  acerb  flavor  is  in  the  natural  man  !  How  harsh  the  natu- 
ral pride  is  !  How  domineering  the  natural  temper  is  !  How  cruel 
strength  and  confidence  often  are  !  How  like  the  peacock  does  vanity 
spread  all  its  feathers,  and  show  all  its  colors,  in  the  natural  man ! 
But  when  afilictions  have  chastened  a  man ;  when  they  have  tem- 
pered him;  when  they  have  taught  him  their  lessons,  he  learns  what 
he  can  learn  nowhere  else  but  in  the  tire,  and  on  the  forge,  and  on 
the  anvil  of  afliiction. 

It  is  not  said  that  any  one  is  made  good  by  afliiction  in  the  be- 
ginning ;  but  it  is  declared  that  finally  afliiction  makes  a  man  good. 
And  are  there  not  many  here  who  can  say,  "  It  is  good  for  me  that 
I  have  been  afllicted"  ?  Are  there  not  many  who,  looking  back 
upon  their  life,  can  see  that  the  declaration  of  the  apostle  has  been 
verified  in  their  experience  ? 

Ah  !  it  Avas  the  sculpturing  hand  of  God  cutting  the  hard  stone, 
and  bringing  out  the  features  of  the  new  man. 

So  the  love  of  God  interprets  to  man  not  only  the  way  of  God 
in  a  larger  providence,  but  also  the  way  of  God  in  the  formation  of 
our  inward  manhood — of  the  spiritual  man  in  Christ  Jesus — to  de- 
liver which  from  the  flesh  is  the  very  problem  of  Christianity,  and 
of  the  experience  of  this  world. 


THE  BE  WABB  OF  LO  VING.  5  J 

Then,  to  all  this  is  to  he  added  one  more  thing — the  element  of 

the  future — which  nevei*  departed  from  the  mind  of  the  apostle,  and 

which  will  not  need  to  depart  from  the  mind  of  any  Christian  in 

the  disciplinary  stages  of  earthly  life.     He  says, 

"I  reckod  that  the  sufferingg  of  this  present  time  are  not  worthy  to  be 
compared  with  the  glory  which  shall  be  revealed  in  us." 

He  knew,  if  ever  a  man  in  this  world  knew,  what  suffering 
meant.  If  ever  there  was  a  man  who  felt  with  acute  sensibility,  it 
was  the  Apostle  Paul.  If  there  was  ever  a  man  whose  every  faculty 
was  set  to  catch  suffering,  it  was  that  very  man.  If  there  was  ever 
a  man  who  had  a  chance  to  try  every  part  of  himself  in  the  school 
of  suffering,  it  was  Paul.     And  yet  he  says, 

•'  I  reckon  that  the  sufferings  of  this  present  time  are  not  worthy  to  be 
compared  with  the  glory  which  shall  be  revealed  in  us.  For  the  earnest 
expectation  of  the  creature  waiteth  for  the  manifestation  of  the  sous  of 
God." 

We  are  waiting  until  this  discipline  of  life  shall  set  us  free  from 
these  animal  conditions,  and  evolve  in  us  a  true  manhood,  and  a 
plain,  apparent  insiglit  of  God,  and  of  ourselves  as  sons  of  God,  It 
is  the  aspiration  for  divinity,  as  well  as  for  immortality,  that  comes 
with  it. 

This,  then,  hccomcs  the  feeling,  that  whatever  we  are  bearing  in 
this  world,  we  have  to  bear  only  for  a  little  while. 

I  have  always  been  peculiarly  subject  to  sea-sickness.  "When 
I  was  going  abroad,  and  all  the  wonders  of  the  continent  were 
dazzling  my  imagination,  I  used  to  lie  in  my  berth  scarcely  able  to 
Btir,  wilted  and  worthless.  I  knew  there  were  ten  days  between 
New  York  and  Liverpool,  and  I  used  to  say  to  myself,  "  Well,  are 
you  willing  to  take  these  ten  .days  of  nausea  and  universal  disgust 
for  the  sake  of  the  three  months  of  exquisite  joy  which  you  are 
going  to  have  on  the  continent  ?"  I  never  was  so  sea-sick  but  that 
I  was  deliberately  willing  to  pay  the  price.  I  said,  "  This  is  about 
as  bad  as  anything  can  well  be  in  this  world ;  but  for  the  sake  of 
that  which  is  beyond  it  I  will  take  even  this." 

Returning,  we  had  a  passage  of  seventeen  days.  We  came  with 
a  Avatcr-logged  steamship.  She  w^as  loaded  down  deeper  by  many 
feet  than  she  should  have  been.  She  had  contraband  goods  to  land 
at  Halifax,  which  I  had  the  pleasure  of  riding  upon  all  the  way 
across  the  sea.  It  was  stormy  from  shore  to  shore,  without  a  single 
fair  day.  But  the  place  to  which  we  were  going  was  my  home  ; 
there  was  my  family  ;  there  was  my  church  ;  there  were  my  friends 
who  were  as  dear  to  me  as  my  own  life.  And  I  lay  perfectly  happy 
in  the  midst  of  sickness  and  nausea.  All  that  the  boat  could  do  to 
me  could  not  keep  down  the  exultation  and  joy  which  rose  up  in 


52  THE  BE  WAED  OF  LOVING. 

me.  For  every  single  hour  was  carrying  me  nearer  and  nearer  to 
the  spot  where  was  all  that  I  loved  in  the  world.  It  was  deep,  dark 
midnight  when  we  ran  into  Halifax,  I  could  see  nothing.  Yet,  the 
moment  we  came  into  still  vrater  I  rose  from  my  berth,  and  got  up 
on  deck.  And  as  I  sat  near  the  smoke-stack  while  they  w^e  unload- 
ing the  cargo,  upon  the  wharf,  I  saw  the  shadow  of  a  person,  ap- 
parently, going  backward  and  forward  near  me.  At  last  the  thought 
occurred  to  me,  "  Am  I  watched  ?"  Just  then  the  person  addressed 
me,  saying,  "  Is  this  Mr.  Beecher  ?"  "  It  is,"  I  replied.  "  I  have  a 
telegram  for  you  from  your  wife."  I  had  not  realized  that  I  had 
struck  the  continent  where  my  family  were.  There,  in  the  middle 
of  the  night,  and  in  darkness,  the  intelligence  that  I  had  a  telegram 
from  home — I  cannot  tell  you  what  a  thrill  it  sent  through  me  ! 

Brethren,  we  are  all  sailing  home  ;  and  by  and  by,  when  we  are 
not  thinking  of  it,  some  shadowy  thing  (men  call  it  death),  at  mid- 
night, will  pass  by,  and  will  call  us  by  name,  and  will  say,  "  I  have 
a  message  for  you  from  home  ;  God  wants  you ;  heaven  waits  for 
you."  It  is  but  a  handbreadth.  And  on  the  stormy  sea  are  they 
men,  who  stop  to  think  of  discomforts  when  home  and  heart  are 
calling  for  them  ?  Are  they  worthy  of  anything  but  pity  who  are 
not  able  to  bear  the  hardships  of  the  voyage  when  they  are  going 
home  ?  It  will  not  be  long  before  you  and  I  and  every  one  of  us 
will  hear  the  messengers  sent  to  bring  us  back  to  heaven.  It  is 
pleasant  to  me  to  think  that  we  are  wanted  there.  I  am  thankful 
that  God  loves  in  such  a  way  that  he  yearns  for  me — yes,  a  great 
deal  more  than  I  do  for  him. 

Here,  then,  is  the  triumph.  And  with  this  exposition  I  think  there 
are  not  a  few  of  us,  loving  God,  who,  can  say,  "  Considering  that 
God's  providence  is  taking  care  of  us  ;  considering  that  our  inward 
nature  is  to  be  wrought  up  rather  than  that  our  outward  nature 
should  be  pampered  ;  considering  that  we  have  the  love  and  the 
cheer  of  God  on  the  way ;  and  considering  that  our  journey  will  be 
short,  all  things  do  work  together  for  our  good  in  this  larger  view." 
Are  there  not  a  great  many  of  us  who,  in  the  light  of  these  things, 
can  rise  into  the  confidence  of  the  apostle,  and  say,  "  I  know  that  all 
things  shall  work  togetlier  for  good  to  them  that  love  God  "  ? 

That  condition  you  must  put  in — "  to  them  that  love  Gody  To 
such  all  things  shall  work  together  for  good.  Afflictions  shall  work 
together  for  good  to  them.  That  is,  they  will  cut  around,  and 
around,  and  around. 

Did  yoa  ever  watch  to  see  a  stone-cutter  carve  the  figures  that 
were  to  decorate  a  temple  ?  I  stood  once,  in  Paris,  where  the 
stone  is  soft,  and  where  the  building-blocks  are  cut,  not  on  the 


TEE  BEWABD  OF  LOVING.  53 

ground,  but  in  their  places  on  the  tops  of  the  doors,  and  about  the 
windows ;  and  I  saw  the  chiseling  done.  I  saw  the  work  going  forward 
on  some  of  the  public  buildings,  where  lions,  and  eagles,  and  wreaths 
of  flowers  were  being  carved.  Men  stood  with  little  chisels  and 
mallets,  cutting,  and  cutting,  and  cutting  the  stone,  here  and 
there. 

Suppose  one  of  these  blocks  of  stone,  when  it  first  mounts  into 
its  place,  is  told  that  it  is  to  be  a  royal  lion,  and  it  is  to  decorate  a 
magnificent  structure.  The  workman  commences,  and  after  working 
one  day,  the  head  is  rudely  shaped,  but  you  can  barely  tell  what  it 
is.  The  next  day  he  brings  out  one  ear.  The  third  day  he  opens 
one  eye.  And  so,  day  after  day,  some  new  part  is  added.  The  stone 
complains,  and  asks  if  the  operation  is  to  be  an  everlasting  one ;  but 
the  work  goes  on.  And  you  cannot  get  anything  out  of  stone  except 
by  myriads  of  blows  continued  until  the  work  is  done. 

I  hear  people  say,  "  Why  am  I  afilicted  ?"  For  your  good. 
"  How  long  shall  I  be  afflicted !"  Until  you  cease  to  ask  how  long. 
Until  God's  work  is  done  in  you.  God  will  go  on  chiseling  as  long 
as  it  is  necessary,  in  order  to  elaborate  first  one  feature,  and  then 
another,  and  then  another.  The  work  ought  to  go  on  until  it  is  com- 
pleted. And  every  true  heart  ought  to  say,  "  Lord,  do  not  stay  thy 
hand  ;  cut  away  until  I  am  brought  out  into  the  fair  lines  and  linea- 
ments of  the  image  of  God.  Troubles  and  afflictions  and  blows  that 
are  sent  are  useless  unless  they  make  you  patient  to  your  fellows, 
and  submissive  to  your  lot.  But  rest  assured  that  if  you  love  God 
all  things  will  work  together  for  your  good.  And  noAV  join  and 
work  Avith  them.     Help  God  work  for  you. 

The  same  is  true  in  regard  to  our  worldly  plans  ;  in  regard  to 
our  activities  and  industries.  I  know  very  well  that  it  is  not  easy  to 
get  along  in  life.  I  wonder  that  many  of  you  get  along  as  well  as 
you  do.  I  do  not  reproach  you.  I  sympathize  with  you.  I  know 
that  your  life  in  many  respects  is  difficult.  Nevertheless,  I  must  keep 
the  standard  up.  Il  y  >u  cannot  reach  that  standard  of  noblest  man- 
hood, still  strive  fur  it,  I  know  it  is  not  easy  for  you  to  bear  your 
cai-e  in  the  store.  I  know  that  every  one  of  the  humbler  callings  has 
its  own  troubles  and  burdens.  Everybody  says,  "  Others  have  care ; 
but  I  do  not  think  anybody  ever  had  such  care  as  mine."  Very 
likely  that  may  be  so.  And  the  same  thing  is  true  of  your  next 
neighbor,  and  his  next  neighbor.  Everybody  has  peculiar  care ;  and 
everybody's  burden  is  heavier  than  anybody  else's.  The  yoke  you 
have  on  to-day  is  the  sharpest  to  you ;  and  the  sorrow  you  have  is 
the  bitterest.  I  know  that  you  all  have  your  troubles  ;  but,  after 
all,  I  know  that  these  troubles  and  trials,  if  you  love  God,  and  will 


b 4  TEH  BE  WABD  OF  LO  VING. 

livfe  in  the  conscious  love  of  God,  are  means  of  grace,  and  are 
all  working  out  for  you  a  better  manhood  and  a  nobler  inheritance 
in  the  kingdom  of  God's  glory. 

,  I  think  the  hardest  thing  for  a  man  to  contemplate  is  being  laid 
aside  before  he  is  allowed  to  die.  A  man  very  soon  drives  all  care 
away  when  he  is  allowed  to  work.  But  for  a  man  to  wait  ten 
or  fifteen  years  after  he  has  got  through  working,  when  the  infirmity 
of  age  is  upon  him,  or  for  any  other  reason — I  think  that  is  the  point 
when  trouble  would  be  the  hardest  to  bear — with  me  at  any  rate.  I 
should  like  to  fall  with  the  harness  on,  and  die  in  the  Lord's  battle. 
But  God  may  npt  be  of  my  mind.  It  may  be  my  lot  to  linger  after 
my  abilities  have  been  very  much  weakened  ;  after  my  usefulness  is 
ended.  I  may  be  obliged  to  lie  idle  a  great  while.  Who  am  I  ?  I 
cannot  take  my  choice  any  more  than  you  can  take  your  choice.  It 
is  the  hand  of  God  that  is  governing  all  things;  and  if  he  wants  to 
do  with  me  as  Achilles  did  by  Hector  vrhen  he  tied  him  to  his 
chariot  wheels  and  dragged  him  in  disgrace  around  and  around  the 
Grecian  camp,  I  cannot  help  it.  I  am  to  learn  that  even  in  that  there 
is  blessing.  I  am  to  believe  that  all  things  shall  work  together  for 
my  good,  and  that  I  shall  see  how  they  have  done  so  when  I  come  to 
look  back  upon  them  from  the  other  life.  I  am  to  accept  this  truth, 
not  according  to  human  measures,  but  as  a  thing  to  be  apj)rehended 
and  understood  in  the  spiritual  realm.  Since  "all  things  work 
together  for  good  to  them  that  love  God,"  I  am  to  hold  on  to  that 
one  golden  thread,  love  to  God.  That  will  bring  everything  right 
in  the  end. 

Brethren,  we  are  never  without  the  need  of  some  such  truth. 
As  the  saying  is,  every  house  has  a  closet  with  a  skeleton  in  i'. 
Every  heart  has  its  own  bitterness,  its  trial,  its  cross.  And  as  you 
go  on  in  life,  you  are  likely  to  have  more  troubles  rather  than  less. 
Therefore  we  need  something  to  give  us  a  higher  sense  of  life  ;  a 
higher  standard  of  what  is  good  and  what  is  bad  ;  a  higher  estimate 
of  what  is  profitable  and  what  is  unprofitable.  And  as  we  are  draw- 
ing near,  so  many  of  us,  to  the  other  side,  to  the  further  shore,  it  is 
unspeakably  pleasant  to  think  that  wliatever  may  befall  us  here, 
whatever  may  be  the  events  and  experiences  of  life,  in  a  very  little 
time  we  shall  see  each  other  where  there  are  no  more  blemishes. 

Did  you  ever  think  how  hard  it  is  to  bear  with  some  people 
whom  God  has  put  you  alongside  of,  and  whom  you  must  bear  with  ? 
and  did  you  ever  think  how  beautiful  they  are  going  to  be  when 
God's  work  is  completed  ?  Did  you  ever  think  that  the  child  that 
has  wrung  your  heart  with  anguish  might  be  given  to  you  in  the 
other  life  more  beautiful  than  you  ever  thought  such  a  form  or  face 


TEE  BE  WABB  OF  LOVING.  55 

could  be  ?  Have  you  ever  thought  that  those  who  have  stirred  up 
anger  and  envy  in  you,  and  provoked  you,  and  for  whom  you  have 
been  obliged  to  deny  yourself,  were  in  the  furnace  like  you,  and  that 
God  was  working  them  out,  and  that  by  and  by  the  persons  whom 
on  earth  you  least  desired  to  meet,  and  whose  names  were  the  most 
cacophonous  in  your  ear,  may  be  pi-esented  to  you  in  the  "other  life 
as  the  most  rare  and  beauteous  expositions  of  character  and  of  life 
and  of  love  ?  By  and  by  you  shall  see  that  all  things  have  worked 
to  help  you,  if  you  love  God. 

Look  forward  a  little.  When  you  find  it  hard  to  bear  with  any- 
body, say  to  yourself,  "  How  does  Christ  feel  about  me  ?"  When 
your  children  provoke  you,  think  how  you  provoke  God.  When 
your  friends  are  intolerable,  think  how  you  must  appear  to  the  sen- 
sitive and  pure  and  sweet  and  loving  Christ.  When  your  task 
seems  hard,  think  of  the  land  just  beyond.  When  men  seem  to  you 
fit  subjects  for  wrath,  think  again.  Have  mercy  on  them.  If  there 
are  persons  who  seem  so  bad  that  you  cannot  endure  them,  take 
them  out  of  this  climate  and  twilight  below,  and  look  at  them  in  the 
light  of  the  eternal  world.  Bring  your  imagination  to  the  side  of 
your  charity,  and  let  your  heart  and  fancy  together  make  them  ap- 
pear as  they  will  be  when  you  meet  thern  in  Zion  and  before  God. 
It  will  make  the  way  of  friendship)  easier  and  smoother.  It  will 
make  your  life  in  this  world  more  blessed,  and  your  passage  out  of 
it  more  joyful,  and  the  life  to  come  transcendently  happy. 

May  God  grant  to  us  all  such  a  revelation  of  love  in  him,  that 
we  shall  be  able  to  say,  from  this  time  henceforth  and  forever,  "  I 
Jcnoio  that  all  things  shall  work  together  for  good  to  them  that  love 
God:' 


56  THE  BEWAED  OF  LOVING, 

PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

We  desire  to  give  thanks  to  thee,  our  heavenly  Father.  We  have  been 
drawn  by  the  Spirit  into  the  knowledge  and  into  the  love  of  Jesus  Christ. 
No  more  is  there  between  us  and  the  impalpable  an  invisible  and  wide  gulf. 
At  last,  we  can  fix  our  understandings  and  our  hearls  upon  one  who  is  like 
unto  ourselves,  and  yet,  who  is  God  whom  we  may  love,  whom  we  may  fol- 
low, whom  we  may  worship,  in  whom,  Uving,  we  shall  have  strength,  and 
dying,  shall  rise  to  behold,  in  more  glory  than  it  hath  entered  into  our  heart 
to  conceive,  our  soul's  Lover  and  our  life's  Guide.  Nothing  shall  separate  us 
from  the  love  of  God  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus. 

We  thank  thee  for  all  the  disclosure  which  thou  hast  made.  O  blessed 
Saviour,  we  thank  thee  for  thy  words,  that  are  still  ahve.  Though  uttered 
long  ago,  they  are  verified ;  as  thou  didst  say.  The  words  I  speak  unto  you 
are  life,  are  spirit.  Inextinguishable  are  they,  and  borne  on,  as  they  shall  be 
to  the  end  of  the  human  race. 

We  thank  thee  not  alone  for  the  preciousness  of  those  kindling  words, 
but  for  all  those  other  truths  which  thou  art  making  known  to  us  by  the 
revelation  of  our  own  lives.  We  are,  in  the  order  of  thy  providence,  guided 
from  truth  to  truth.  Thou  art  making  us  to  understand  the  letter  in  its  true 
spirit.  Thou  art  teaching  us  also  more  than  there  is  in  the  letter — unuttera- 
ble things  not  written,  nor  to  be  written.  Thou  art  making  our  hearts  inter- 
preters of  the  divine  spirit  and  of  the  mystery  of  love  and  redemption.  And 
we  thank  thee  for  the  secret  of  God  with  so  many ;  for  the  preciousness  of 
Christ ;  for  the  hope  of  glory ;  for  that  forelooking  which  brings  something 
before  it  takes  hold  of  full  possession.  We  thank  thee  for  all  those  hours  of 
blessedness  which  we  have  known  ia  days  gone  by ;  for  the  irradiation  of 
our  darkness;  for  the  comfort  and  consolation  of  sadness ;  for  the  inspira- 
tion of  hope  in  the  midst  of  fears;  for  courage  and  victory  even  in  defeat, 
so  that  we  may  say.  Cast  down  but  not  destroyed.  All  the  way  through  life 
thou  hast  been  near  unto  us  to  bless  us  even  in  trouble;  and  we  look  back 
now  to  see  that  we  could  not  spare  one  single  stripe  or  chastisement  of  all 
thy  dealings  with  us.  Thy  mercies  seem  more  and  more  wonderful  as  we 
recede  from  them.  We  look  upon  single  experiences  of  our  life  and  feel  that 
it  was  worth  all  of  life  to  have  had  them.  And  yet,  they  stand  but  as  parts 
of  that  wondrous  development  whose  meaning  and  whose  glory  we  do  not 
see.  We  are  as  dumb  beasts  that  come  from  the  mines  bearing  precious 
ores,  and  stones  of  priceless  value,  but  do  not  know  what  they  carry.  We 
are  bearing  through  life  experiences  that  shall  be  interpreted  in  realms 
above  in  such  luster  and  such  glory  that  we  shall  marvel  that  we  did  not 
understand  by  the  way  what  it  was  that  we  bore. 

We  thank  thee  that  thou  art  preparing  us  for  that  rest  which  remaineth 
for  the  people  of  God.  Other  things  pass  away;  but  thou  dost  not  pass 
away.  Other  things  are  changing;  but  thou  dost  not  change.  Time  has 
broken  down  familiar  things ;  but  there  remains  a  rest  upon  which  time  has 
no  power.  There  are  oiir  friends,  there  are  our  parents,  most  dearly  beloved 
and  most  worthy  of  love,  there  are  our  brothers  and  sisters,  whose  hand  we 
can  clasp ;  and  we  rejoice  that  nothing  can  take  this  fact  from  us ;  that  noth- 
ing can  change  it ;  that  nothing  can  deprive  us  of  its  comfort. 

We  have  given  ourselves  to  thee,  blessed  Saviour ;  and  who  shall  pluck  U3 
out  of  thy  hand  ?  We  have  entered  upon  the  way  which  is  difficult.  When 
we  look  upon  the  combat  of  our  passions ;  when  we  look  upon  the  torment 
of  the  world ;  when  we  look  upon  all  those  things  which nnen  attempt  to  do 
or  bear,  liow  they  fail !  And  yet,  having  given  thine  own  Son  wilt  thou  not 
with  him,  O  Father,  give  us  all  things  which  are  needed  tor  our  victory  ? 


TEE  BE  WABD  OF  LO  VING,  6 7 

! 

And  so  we  live  by  faith,  by  love,  by  hope,  and  cast  fear  behind  our  backs, 
and  are  willing  to  suffei*,  and  to  suffer  continuously,  and  to  the  end.  And 
why  should  we  not  ?  Is  the  servant  above  the  Master  ?  Dear  Jesus,  was  thy 
head  crowned  with  thorns,  and  shall  we  insist  upon  a  golden  crown?  Shall 
we  forever  seek  ease  when  thou  didst  die  for  us,  and  didst  utter  prayers  for 
us  ?  Shall  we  not  bear  some  part  of  our  suffering  for  ourselves  and  for  others  ? 

Teach  us  to  rise  above  the  selfishness  of  our  own  personality.  May  we 
not  seek  everything  for  ourselves — for  all  things  are  om-s  in  the  greater 
sphere.  Grant  that  we  may  so  live  that  every  day  we  shall  have  thy  pres- 
ence cheering  us,  and  saying  to  us,  All  things  shall  work  together  for  good  to 
them  that  love  God. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  bless  those  who  are  not  able  to  come  to  the  house- 
hold of  the  Lord.  We  pray  that  thou  wilt  go  to  them,  and  be  in  their  rooms, 
and  make  them  a  sanctuary.  Granrt  that  they  may.  in  their  communings, 
find  no  need  of  the  teachings  and  of  the  service  of  the  household  of  God. 
Grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  those  who  are  sick  may  find  thee  a  help  to  their 
souls.  Comfort  those  who  are  in  the  midst  of  troubles  and  disappointments, 
and  who  know  not  how  to  spread  their  wings  and  rise  above  the  cloud. 
Grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  every  one  who  is  suffering  under  bereavements, 
may  be  able  in  sweet  resignation  to  find  peace  in  believing. 

Be  with  all  those  who  are  called  to  carry  burdens,  which  at  times  seem 
heavier  than  they  can  bear,  and  into  whose  heart  the  iron  enters.  Grant,  we 
pray  thee,  that  they  may  not  seek  to  cast  it  off  ignominiously,  or  to  drown 
it ;  but  may  they  be  able  to  look  up  to  thee  and  see  thy  hand  even  in  the 
sharpest  affliction,  and  learn  some  lesson  at  the  hand  of  the  Lord,  so  that  by 
and  by,  when  they  shall  emerge  from  this  f ever-flt  of  life,  from  these  dreams, 
to  see  things  as  tliey  are,  they  may  rejoice  and  give  thanks  that  they  do  not 
faint  nor  fall  by  the  way. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  hear  the  prayers  of  thy  people.  Thou  art  hearing 
them  more  than  they  think.  Teach  them  to  plead  as  children  plead  with 
their  parents.  And  listen,  thou  that  listenelh  with  more  love  than  parents 
listen.  • 

And  grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  thy  Gospel,  which  brings  tidings  of  joy  and 
peace  on  every  side,  may  be  made  known  to  all,  more  and  more.  Gather  in 
the  outcast,  the  poor  and  the  needy.  More  and  more  make  us  the  almoners 
of  thy  bounty,  preachers  of  thy  word  and  thy  truth.  And  grant  that  every- 
where throughout  our  land,  and  throughout  the  world,  the  truth  as  it  is 
through  Christ  Jesus  may  bring  peace,  and  purity,  and  joy,  and  hope,  and 
finally,  salvation.  And  to  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Spiiit,  shall  be  praises 
everlasting.    Amen. 


PRAYER  AFTER  TIIE  SERMON. 

Our  Father,  we  pray  for  thy  blessing  to  rest  upon  the  truth  which  has 
been  spoken.  Not  only  may  it  comfort  and  strengthen  us,  but  may  it  renew 
our  faith.  May  it  incite  us  to  new  enterprise,  new  endeavors,  new  aspira- 
tions, and  new  strivings  after  a  higher  life  in  Christ  Jesus.  Bless  those  who 
need  comfort.  Wilt  thou  strengthen  those  who  are  weak  and  ready  to 
perish.  Recall  any  who  are  wandering,  having  backslidden  from  their  faith 
and  love.  And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  glorify  thine  own  name  among  thy 
people,  and  spread  abroad  the  truths  of  the  Gospel,  till  the  name  of  Christ 
shall  be  all-powerful  m  the  whole  earth — the  name  above  every  name.  And 
to  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  shall  be  praises  everlasting. 
Amen. 


IV. 

The  Cause  a-nd  Cure  of  Corruption 
IN  Public  Affairs. 


CAUSE  AND  CURE  OF  CORRUPTION 

m  PUBLIC  AFFAIKS. 


"  That  thou  mayst  walk  in  the  way  of  good  men,  and  keep  the  paths  of 
the  righteous.  For  the  upright  shall  dwell  in  the  laud,  and  the  perfect 
shall  remain  in  it.  But  the  wicked  shall  be  cut  off  from  the  earth,  and  the 
transgressors  shall  be  rooted  out  of  it."— Pkov.  ii.,  20-22, 


This  is  a  kind  of  summary  of  the  moral  principle  involved  in  the 
exhortations  and  reasonings  which  precede  it. 

The  writer  had  seen  a  great  deal  of  civil  life,  and  a  great  many 
of  the  develoi^raents  of  human  nature,  in  the  ways  of  ambition,  in 
the  v/ays  of  pleasure,  in  the  ways  of  turbulence  and  war,  and  in  the 
ways  of  corruption  and  avarice ;  and  you  shall  find,  in  the  times  of 
the  kings  of  Israel,  descriptions  of  things  that  are  taking  place  now, 
and  have  taken  place  in  every  age,  in  luxurious  and  wealthy  com- 
munities, oftentimes  indicating,  if  possible,  greater  depths  of  wicked- 
ness than  any  that  natuz-e  or  history  in  recent  times  have  recorded. 
Only  a  few  verses  preceding  these,  in  the  first  chapter,  we  have  this 
passage : 

"  My  son,  if  sinners  entice  thee,  consent  thou  not.  If  they  say.  Come 
with  u?,  let  us  lay  wait  for  blood,  let  us  lurk  privily  for  the  innocent  with- 
out cause:  let  us  swallow  them  up  alive  as  <he  grave;  and  whole,  as  those 
that  go  down  into  the  pit:  we  shall  fiad  all  precious  substanc?,  we  shall 
fill  our  houses  with  spoil :  cast  in  thy  lot  among  us ;  let  us  have  one  purse : 
my  son,  walk  not  thou  in  the  way  with  them ;  refrain  thy  foot  from  their 
path :  for  their  feet  rua  to  evil,  and  make  haste  to  shed  blood." 

Old  nations  were  not  organized  as  highly  as  ours  are ;  and 
the  State  itself  was  almost  unknown.  There  were  royal  treasures ; 
but  the  communities  Avere  almost  always  poor ;  and  although  there 
was  great  swindling  in  the  levying  and  expenditure  of  taxes,  yet 
that  was  not  a  way  in  which  men  could  very  much  get  rich.  They 
had  other  ways  of  doing  it.  They  marked  rich  men  here  and  there 
and  elsewhere  ;  they  plotted  their  downfall ;  they  whispered  in  the 
ears  of  the  king  suspicions  of  treason,  of  infidelity,  and  procured 
gome  unjust  sentence,  and  swept  down  the  man,  and  swallowed  up 

Sunday  Evenino,  Oct.  1,  1871.    Lesson:  Luke  XIII.,  1—17.    Hymns  (Plymouth 
CoUection),  Nos.  865,  947, 1004. 


62  CA USU  AND  C UBB  OF  COBB UFTION 

his  estate,  gorging  all  the  profits.  Pushed  out  from  high  estate 
and  influence,  and  disgraced,  others  sucked  out  all  his  substance. 
It  was  only  another  way  of  doing  the  same  thing  which  we  seo 
done  nowadays.  .  Blood-suckers  then  were  just  the  same  as  blood- 
suckers now.  We  in  this  age  suck  blood,  and  they  in  that  age 
sucked  blood  ;  only  then  they  sucked  it  from  one  side,  and  now  we 
suck  it  from  another  side.     The  sucking  was  the  same. 

You  shall  find  in  other  places  in  the  word  of  God — particularly 
in  Isaiah — delineations  which  seem  to  show  that  there  was  the  same 
want  of  public  conscience ;  that  there  was  the  same  prostration  of 
justice;  that  the  forms  of  justice  were  employed  to  destroy  the 
thing  itself;  that  government,  which  was  set  against  misrule,  was 
actively  employed  in  misruling ;  and  that  magistrates  and  judges 
appointed  for  integrity  and  the  execution  of  righteousness,  became 
themselves  the  greatest  culprits  and  criminals. 

"  Their  feet  run  to  evil,  and  they  make  haste  to  shed  innocent  blood : 
their  thoughts  are  thoughts  of  iniquity;  wasting  and  destruction  are  in 
their  paths.  The  way  of  peace  they  know  not ;  and  there  is  no  judg- 
ment in  their  goings:  they  have  made  them  crooked  paths;  whosoever 
goeth  therein  shall  not  know  peace.  Therefore  is  judgment  far  from  ua, 
neither  doth  justice  overtake  us :  we  wait  for  light,  but  behold  obscurity; 
for  brightness,  but  we  walk  in  darkness.  "We  grope  for  the  wall  like  the 
blind,  and  we  grope  as  if  we  had  no  eyes:  we  sturable  at  noanday  as  in  the 
night;  we  are  in  desolate  places  as  dead  men.    We  roar  all  like  bears." 

The  bold  folks,  that  are  indignant,  and  protest,  would  be  glad 
to  grind  in  their  teeth  and  crush  in  their  paws,  public  transgressors. 

"  We  roar  all  like  bears " 

about  as  clumsily,  and  about  as  intelligently.     Then  there  is  a  softer 

sort : 

'•And  we  mourn  sore,  like  doves." 

Such  a  pity  !  so  bad !  so  wicked  ! 

Some  break  out  into  turbulent  oaths,  and  would  like  to  bring  fire 
on  the  rascals'  heads  ;  and  others  feel  so  badly  that  it  should  be  so. 
Oh,  the  sentimentality  and  the  indignation  ! 

"We  roar  all  like  bears,  and  mourn  Fore  like  doves:  we  look  for 
judgment,  but  there  is  none;  for  salvation,  but  it  is  far  off  from  us. 
For  our  transgressions  are  multiplied  before  thee,  and  our  sins  tcsiify 
against  us:  for  our  transgressions  are  with  us;  and  as  for  our  iniquities, 
we  know  them.  In  transirressing  and  lying  against  the  Lord,  and  de- 
parting away  from  our  God,  speaking  oppression  and  revolt,  conceiving 
and  uttering  from  the  heart  words  of  falsehood.  And  judgment  is 
turned  away  backward,  and  justice  standeth  afar  off:  for  truth  is  fallen 
in  the  street,  and  equity  cannot  enter." 

There  is  inspiration  in  that.  While  the  community  were  mfest- 
ed  with  great  and  flagrant  criminals,  the  prophet  turned  round  and 
said,  "These  men  exist  because  we  are  wicked.  It  is  our  laxity  of 
conscience ;  it  is  our  want  of  moral  principle ;  it  is  our  infidelity  to 


IK  P  UBLIC  AFFAIRS.  G  3 

our  trust,  to  the  State,  which  God  has  put  into  our  hands,  that  is 
the  reason  of  such  outbreaking  iniquity." 

There  is  nothing  more  striking  than  the  stubbornness,  if  I  may  so 
say,  with  which  the  word  of  God  has  borne,  in  every  age,  testimony 
to  the  ruinousness  of  wrong  courses,  and  to  the  safety  and  peace 
and  joyfulness  of  moral  rectitude.  There  is  nothing  which  seems  so 
absurd  in  times  when  the  wicked  flourish,  as  that  a  course  of  truth- 
speaking  and  fidelity  is  the  best  course.  Crooked  Avays  seem  to  be 
successful  ways.  And  yet,  from  beginning  to  end,  without  a  solitary 
exception,  the  various  books  of  the  Bible,  written  hundreds  of  years 
apart,  and  each  by  different  men,  agree  in  this  one  central  proposi- 
tion. After  a  thousand  years  the  earliest  books  were  written  ;  and 
the  experience  of  the  world  thus  far  justified  the  declaration  that  the 
way  of  peace  is  always  a  way  of  honesty  and  truth  ;  and  that  the 
way  of  dishonesty  and  untruth  is  always  a  turbulent  way.  A  thou- 
sand more  years  rolled  round,  and  new  observations  had  been  taken 
during  that  time  ;  and  another  writer  sprang  up,  and  said,  as  tlie 
result  of  those  observations,  "  They  prosper,  in  the  long  run,  who 
have  a  pure  conscience  and  live  uprightly  ;  and  they  who  forsake 
the  way  of  the  Lord,  though  for  the  time  being  they  seem  to  be 
prosperous,  shall  come  to  an  end  speedily."  Another  -thousand 
years  rolled  away,  and  men  who  looked  on  the  face  of  the  human 
race  cried  out  again,  as  the  result  of  that  additional  experience,  the 
s  irae  words.  And  so  generation  has  declared  to  generation,  and  a^-e 
to  age,  and  thousand  years  to  thousand  years,  that  the  way  of  hap- 
piness lies  in  integrity,  and  that  the  forsaking  of  that  way,  either 
in  private  or  public  life,  is  the  broad  road  the  beginnings  of  which 
are  pleasant  and  flowery,  but  which  end  in  disaster  and  darkness 
and  overthrow. 

I  need  not  say  that  I  have  entered  upon  this  subject  on  account 
of  that  which  has  filled  the  thoughts  and  occupied  the  conversations 
of  men  for  many  months  past — the  condition  of  affairs  in  the  City  of 
New  York  ;  the  disclosures  which  have  been  made  ;  the  shock 
which  has  been  produced  ;  the  anger,  the  fear,  the  suffering,  the 
thousand  conflicting  feelings.  It  seems  to  me  that  it  is  a  part  of  the 
duty  of  a  faithful  minister  into  whose  hands  is  placed  the  truth  of 
God  to  apply  to  the  consciences  of  men,  not  to  let  go  by,  without 
calling  your  attention  to  it,  a  subject  so  important,  or  a  crisis 
of  events  so  tremendous.  If,  however,  you  expect  me  to  join  in 
the  hue  and  cry,  I  shall  not  do  it. 

"  Those  eighteen,  upon  whom  the  tower  in  Siloam  fell,  and  slew  them, 
think  ye  that  they  were  sinners  above  all  men  that  dwelt  in  Jerusalem  ?  I 
tell  ye  Nay :  but,  except  ye  repent,  ye  shall  all  likewise  perish." 


64  CAUSE  AND  CUBE  OF  COBBUPTION 

I  regard  the  culprits  in  these  flagrant  transactions  as  so  many- 
boils  and  carbuncles ;  as  so  many  points  where  the  diseases  of  the 
body  emptied  themselves.  The  whole  body  was  full  of  morbific 
matter,  and  these  were  the  places  where  it  was  manifested.  They 
are  notorious  criminals,  that  are  criminal ;  but  they  represent  in  a 
sad  way  the  average  condition  of  the  communities  in  which  they 
dwell.  The  permissions,  the  lowness  of  moral  sentiment,  the 
neglects,  the  various  forms  of  positive  wrong,  which  are  winked  at, 
indulged,  in  others,  without  blame,  or  are  actively  employed  by  our- 
selves— these  have  conspired  to  the  production  of  diseases  which  we 
all  of  us  feel  to  be  a  shame  and  a  disgrace. 

I  tinist  that  those  men  who  have  been  the  leaders  or  prime  par- 
ticipators in  these  things  have  suffered,  not  simply  the  fear  of  detec- 
tion, but  also  remorse,  and  some  pangs  remedial  ;  and  it  is  not  for 
me  to  add  epithets  to  those  which  have  already  been  ^plentifully 
heaped  upon  them,  but  to  attempt  to  look  into  the  causes  of  such 
things,  and  see  whether  we  have  any  duties  in  the  premises. 

Nations  are  like  individals  in  this  respect,  that  they  are  liable  to 
cycles  of  diseases.  It  is  true  that  nations  who  live  on  a  low  plane, 
and  who  are  not  very  much  excited  by  civilization  ,  who  are  not 
educated,  and  who  therefore  live  a  kind  of  routine  and  torpid  life, 
ai"e  oftentimes  relatively  free  from  many  of  the  vices  that  affect 
energetic  and  civilized  nations.  So  you  shall  frequently  find  nations 
far  below  us  in  civilization  in  whom  the  virtues  of  truth-sjDeaking 
and  fidelity  and  honesty  are  conspicuously  superior  to  our  own. 
Many  persons  deride  Christianity  for  that  reason.  We  are,  how- 
ever, to  take  into  consideration  that  anything  which  rouses  up  the 
whole  energy  of  men  gives  a  potency  to  every  part  of  their  nature. 
Civilization  does  not  confine  itself  to  intellectual  activity.  Even 
moral  culture  does  not  stop  with  moral  culture.  You  cannot  bring 
to  bear  a  powerful  influence  on  the  higher  nature  of  man  without  in 
some  degree,  also,  raising  the  energy  and  strength  of  the  whole 
nervous  system — of  the  whole  cerebral  mass.  Therefore  communities, 
great  in  intelligence  and  moral  power,  are  apt  to  be  great,  likewise, 
in  basilar  directions.  The  unregulated  power  developed  by  civili- 
zation we  have  not  yet  learned  to  restrain,  to  coerce,  to  utilize,  if  I 
may  so  say. 

A  community  that  lives  on  a  low  plane  of  civilization  is  like  a 
canal.  It  is  very  useful,  but  homely.  There  is  nothing  romantic 
about  it.  It  is  very  safe.  It  has  no  dangerous  storms  or  freshets  on 
.it.  Active  communities  that  live  on  a  high  plane  of  civilization  are 
under  a  great  stress.  Like  rivers,  they  are  useful  and  grand,  but  are 
subject  to  wasting  freshets  which  rise  in  their  wrath,  and  overflow 


IN  P  UBLIG  AFFAIRS.  65 

the  banks,  and  subside  again.  And  I  think  that  rivers  are  better 
than  canals,  though  canals  are  a  little  safer. 

Hence  we  are  not  to  be  surprised  that  in  Christian  communities 
there  are  developments  of  an  alarming  kind.  No  nation  ever  existed 
that  did  not  run  through  series  and  cycles  of  moral  diseases.  Some- 
times it  is  the  disease  of  war.  In  lower  states  both  civil  and  foreign 
war  are  ajDt  to  break  out.  In  history  the  moral  life  of  nations  seems 
peculiarly  addicted  to  this  disease.  Then  we  pass  away  from  that, 
and  there  come  terms  of  riotousness  and  turbulence.  Nations  pass 
through  these  as  children  pass  through  the  measels,  the  chicken-pox, 
and  the  whooping-cough.  Such  diseases  many  nations  pass  through 
without  being  destroyed  by  them.  Nations  pass  through  periods 
of  luxurious  corruption,  extravagance,  and  unbounded  exjDenditure. 
It  swells  and  swells  for  a  time,  it  increases  like  a  fever,  rising  in  spite 
of  all  resistance,  and  comes  to  its  maximum  ;  and  then  it  breaks, 
and  passes  off,  and  a  better  state  of  things  comes  in.  Nations  have 
spasms  of  avarice;  and  under  its  baleful  influence  the  most  out- 
rageous proceedings  come  to  be  tolerated,  and  make  headway.  But 
a  nation  that  has  a  substantial  moral  constitution  is  able  to  bear 
these  things.     We  are  able  to  bear  them. 

I  am  greatly  comforted  by  the  history  of  England.  We  come 
from  her  stock.  The  periods  of  corruption  which  the  English  nation 
have  passed  through  are  a  consolation  lo  us.  There  have  been  times 
in  the  history  of  England  when  bribery  was  almost  the  law,  and 
honor  was  the  exception.  There  have  been  times  when  gigantic 
speculations  cut  down  private  fortunes  as  the  scythe  cuts  down  the 
grass  of  the  field.  There  have  been  times  of  turbulence  and  outrage. 
There  have  been  times  when  the  most  despicable  swindling  opera- 
tions have  been  carried  on,  and  vast  fortunes  have  been  accumulated 
which  absorbed  innumerable  minor  fortunes.  All  these  things  have 
existed  in  the  English  nation,  and  it  has  overcome  them.  And  we 
are  of  that  nation.  We  inherit  her  faults  as  well  as  her  virtues. 
And  when  I  see  bribery  among  electors  here,  I  do  not  say  that  it  is 
going  to  destroy  us.  It  will  destroy  us  if  it  is  not  checked,  but  it 
will  be  checked.  There  is  recuperative  energy  in  this  stock.  When 
I  see  gigantic  bribery  in  commercial  matters  I  am  not  alarmed.  I 
should  be  alarmed  if  I  did  not  believe  that  it  would  be  checked  and 
remedied ;  but  I  do  believe  that  it  will  be  -checked  and  remedied.  I 
am  not,  therefore,  discouraged,  but  am  hopeful.  I  am  confident  that 
long  before  we  see  the  way  to  get  over  it  we  shall  get  over  it.  We 
shall  go  back  to  public  honesty.  Even  politics  will  be  purer  than 
they  have  been.  Commerce  will  be  more  honest  than  it  has  been. 
The  time  will  come  when  you,  or  your  children,  will  see  an  honest 
goviernment  in  the  city  of  New  York  ! 


66  CAUSE  AND  CUBE  OF  COBBUFTION 

When  these  periods,  however,  fall  due,  men  wake  up  from  their 
lethargy — men  without  much  reading  and  with  little  instruction — 
and  are  filled  with  all  manner  of  alarm,  unreasoning  and  unreason- 
able, and  sometimes  with  indignation.  There  has  been  enough  in. 
dignation  poured  out  on  the  culprits  of  New  York,  if  it  had  been 
felt  before,  and  distributed  among  the  population  equitably,  to  have 
saved  us  from  the  difficulty.  This  indignation  of  conscience  after 
the  ofiense  is  very  well ;  but  a  foregoing  conscience  that  has  indig- 
nation against  possible  evils,  and  prevents  them,  is  more  profitable. 
I  do  not  wonder  at  the  indignation ;  nor  do  I  wonder  at  the  anger  ; 
nor  should  I  restrain  it ;  but  still,  we  ought  not  to  spend  all  the  in- 
dignation and  anger  on  those  who  have  done  the  wrong.  It  is  a 
partnership.  There  is  some  of  your  blood,  and  some  of  mine,  in 
every  one  of  those  thieving  rascals.  We  are  their  fathers.  It  is 
said  to  be  a  wise  son  that  knows  his  father ;  but  there  are  a  great 
many  of  you  of  whom  it  may  be  said  that  you  do  not  know  your 
own  sons.  We  breed  felons  when  we  permit,  or  in  minor  matters 
set  on  foot,  those  causes  which  issue  in  the  production  of  laxness  in 
public  or  commercial  life. 

In  part  we  owe  the  present  condition  of  public  feeling  and  public 
morals  to  the  influence  and  the  inoculation  which  this  nation  luis  re- 
ceived from  slavery.  Slavery  would  not  have  been  the  atrocious  evil 
that  it  proved  to  be,  if  it  had* not  left  its  victims  imbruted  ;  if  it  had 
not  left  the  communities  very  much  weakened  commercially,  and 
political  economy  in  every  respect  defiled ;  if  it  had  not  spread  its 
virus  secretly  and  in  every  direction  throughout  the  great  body  pol- 
itic. Because  slavery  was  bad,  it  does  not  follow  that  all  the  evils 
which  flowed  out  of  that  feculent  morass  have  been  destroyed.  The 
conscience  brought  up  under  slavery  remains  behind.  The  morala 
that  were  bred  during  the  maintenance  of  that  institution  remain 
behind.  That  certain  gigantic  violation  of  rectitude  which  came  to 
be  recognized  by  our  Constitution,  and  permitted  by  all  our  public 
men — bv  generation  after  generation  of  men,  who  grew  up  accustom- 
ing themselves  to  see  every  right  that  belonged  to  humanity  sy.  - 
tematically  violated  and  trod  upon — that  will  not  be  corrected  in 
the  lifetime  of  the  men  so  educated.  We  have  come  into  our  pres- 
ent state  and  condition  very  much  influenced  (and  not  the  less  be- 
cause imperceptibly  influenced)  by  that  low,  torpid,  I  might  say 
typhoid  conscience,  which  grew  up  u.nder  the  influence  of  slavery. 

We  also  owe  much  of  the  present  lax  condition  of  morals  in  bus- 
iness and  civil  administration  to  the  effect  which  the  war  produced 
upon  us.  Every  physician  knows  that  many  remedies  which  destroy 
the  diseases  leave  behind  a  medicinal  disease.     It  is  true  that  while 


IN  P  UBLIG  AFFAIRS.  6 7 

some  powerful  remedies  tend  to  cure  the  disease  wliich  a  man  La? 
suffered,  aftex'ward  he  has  to  get  over  the  medicine  as  well. 

Now  war  was  a  medicine.  It  was  a  cup  in  the  right  hand  of 
God  mingled  in  the  fierceness  of  his  indignation ;  and  we  drank  it ; 
and  it  cured  us ;  but  we  are  getting  over  the  medicine  now.  It  was 
impossible  to  introduce  suddenly  a  new  state  of  things,  and  not  break 
up  all  the  habits  of  men.  Men  depend  largely  upon  conventions  for 
morality.  Habits  are,  as  it.  were,  guides  and  prophets  to  men.  It  is 
as  impossible  to  lift  a  great  nation  up  suddenly  without  disturbing 
its  foundations,  as  it  is  for  an  earthquake  to  lift  a  village  without 
cracking  or  weakening  any  of  its  walls.  To  take  a  nation  reaching 
fiom  the  Atlantic  to  the  Mississipi>i  and  dash  together  the  tvv'o  great 
sections  thereof  without  the  shocking  and  shattering,  the  dislocation 
and  unsettling  of  men,  is  far  beyond  any  power  which  we  are  capa- 
ble of  measuring.  And  the  prevalence  of  a  law  of  physical  force  in, 
distinction  from  public  sentiment  and  civil  custom,  brought  a  certain 
mischief  which  could  not  be  readily  or  easily  obviated.  Large  for- 
tunes were  made,  and  the  accumulating  element  was  introduced  into 
business  affairs  ;  and  the  settling  back  of  the  nation  to  the  old  foun- 
dation produced  a  state  of  things  that  it  might  be  supposed  would 
come  in  the  form  of  such  flagrant  iniquities  as  we  see  breaking  out 
all  over 'the  land. 

This  state  of  things,  however,  was  not  brought  on  by  slavery 
and  developed  by  war  alone.  We  are  to  look  for  the  causes  of  the 
distemperature  in  public  affairs  more  minutely.  It  indicates  a  great 
remissness  in  the  family  itself;  a  great  want  of  right  teaching  on 
the  part  of  parents  ;  a  great  lack  of  that  old-fashioned,  sturdy  honor 
and  honesty  which  used  to  prevail.  There  was  a  time  when  moi 
felt  that  frugal  living,  accompanied  by  intelligence  and  high  moral 
character,  was  the  best  estate.  Parents  taught  their  children  so, 
and  practiced  what  they  taught.  Children  at  the  table  heard  dis- 
course that  befitted  Rome  in  her  best  days  of  frugality  and  inde- 
pendence. And  these  qualities  were  among  the  noble  virtues  of  New 
England  and  of  the  Middle  and  Northern  States.  Men  were  brought 
up  in  earlier  times  to  this  kind  of  education  little  by  little.  But 
prosperity  and  the  infection  of  outside  ideas  has  changed  it.  There 
has  been  a  growing  feeling  that  power  and  wealth  were  necessary. 
Parents  have  winked  at  this  feeling  in  their  families.  There  has  not 
been  that  deep,  solemn  inculcation  of  personal  virtues  as  indispsnsa- 
ble  to  any  permanent  prosperity  in  life  which  there  used  to  be.  And 
children  have  grown  up,  not  as  much  afraid  of  sin  as  they  were,  but 
with  a  notion  that  there  has  been  exercised  over-rigidity  and  puri- 
tanic strictness.  And  the  family  has  failed  to  do  its  great  office- 
work  in  these  directions. 


68  CAUSE  AND  CUBE  OF  COBBUPTION 

■  Then  there  has  been  a  want  of  right  teaching  in  the  pulpit. 
There  was  a  time  when  there  were  no  public  mischiefs  which  were 
not  discussed  in  the  pulpit.  In  the  earlier  days  of  New  England 
and  the  Colonies,  it  was  understood  that  the  minister  was  bound 
not  only  to  lay  before  his  congregation  their  personal  sins,  but 
to  attack  all  manner  of  corruption  in  the  community,  whether  it 
belonged  to  commerce  or  politics  or  any  other  department  of  hu- 
man procedure.  In  the  course  of  time,  however,  commerce  and 
politics  became  interested  in  the  maintenance  of  slavery ;  and  the 
pulpit  became,  first,  silent  in  regard  to  it,  then,  an  apologist  for  it, 
and  then  an  advocate  of  it.  And  with  this  failure  to  teach  the 
community  their  civic  duties  began  the  relinquishment  by  the  com- 
munity of  their  stern  integrity,  and  men  became  more  and  more 
corrupt.  In  the  place  of  j^ractical  preaching  on  special  morals,  the 
pulpit  dealt  more  and  more  in  sentimental  generalities  or  dry  intel- 
lectual propositions;  and  the  people  went  unfed ;  and  the  impression 
which  they  received  was  that  it  was  possible  for  great  transgressors 
to  flourish. 

We  are  in  part  to  blame  who  have  had  households  to  bring  up ; 
and  we  are  in  part  to  blame  who  have  been  ministers  to  congrega- 
tions. 

These  are  merely  the  exhibitions,  then,  of  human  nature,  which 
we  see  when  the  restraints  are  taken  off.  When  the  truths  of  relig- 
ion ai-e  not  faithfully  applied,  men  spring  up  in  depravities  and  sins 
as  aforetime. 

Not  only  that,  but  from  this  laxity  of  instruction  at  home,  and 
this  want  of  a  more  sturdy  morality  in  the  pulpit — especially  of  what 
are  called  cotnmon  morals — truth,  fidelity,  honesty,  honor  in  common 
things — in  short,  integrity — there  has  come  up  a  public  sentiment 
so  thin,  so  impoverished  in  blood,  if  I  may  say,  as  not  to  be  able  to 
maintain  honesty  in  the  community.  The  result  has  been,  that  in 
our  business,  from  beginning  to  end,  we  have  permitted  the  practice 
of  fraud  and  dishonesty. 

Now,  nothing  requires  truth  so  much  in  the  inward  nature  as 
credit ;  and  business  above  all  other  things,  stands  upon  credit. 
Credit  requires  that  a  man  should  be  true ;  that  his  word  should  be 
as  good  as  his  bond ;  that  he  should  mean  right ;  and  that  if  he  goes 
wrong  it  shall  be  by  mistake.  In  a  nation,  credit  requires  openness. 
It  requires  that  a  man's  way  and  his  intention  should  be  open,  frank, 
and  apparent.  Anything  that  tends  to  destroy  integrity  in  the  in- 
dividual, so  far  tends  to  destroy  credit  in  business. 

I  need  not  tell  you  how  commerce  is  invested,  and  how  it  has 
permitted  itself  to  be  overborne,  with  corrupt  tendencies.     I  need 


IN  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS,  69 

not  teH'you  that  many  and  many  business  establishments  have  been 
schools  of  equivocation  and  deceit  and  immorality.  Every  man  who 
winks  in  his  business  at  fraud,  every  man  who  mixes  up  the  conduct 
of  his  business  with  lies  and  dishonesty,  no  matter  how  small  the 
thread  may  be  which  he  is  spinning  for  the  fabric  of  evil  which  is 
being  woven,  becomes  particeps  crbninis  with  those  men  who  break 
out  in  positive  mischief.  Do  you  think  it  is  such  an  awful  thing  to 
steal  ?  Do  you  Jiound  after  the  men  who  have  stolen,  crying 
"  Thieves !  thieves  !  thieves  ?"  Why,  a  man  who  puts  his  hand  up 
to  his  shoulder  into  his  neighbor's  chest  and  pulls  out  bags  of  gold, 
is  no  more  a  thief  than  the  man  who,  with  his  delicate  thumb  and 
finger,  takes  out  a  pinch  of  his  neighbor's  gold.  You  think  that  the 
former  is  a  profitable  thief  because  he  takes  a  big  pile,  and  the  latter 
a  contemptible  one  because  he  takes  only  a  pinch ;  but  every  man 
who  sells  by  false  weight,  who  deals  in  false  goods,  who  cheats  in 
the  appearance  of  his  goods ;  every  man  who  lies  to  his  customers, 
and  manufactures  fraudulently,  and  distributes  fraudulently  what  he 
manufactures,  has  given  a  drop  of  blood  to  these  miscreants,  and  has 
joint  parentage  in  them.  You  -have  been  preparing  for  su^ch  things. 
Business  has  been  the  anvil  on  which  has  been  beaten  out  these  su- 
perlative villains. 

"  Those  eighteen  upon  whom  the  tower  in  Siloam  fell,  and  slew  them, 
think  ye  that  they  were  sinners  above  all  men  that  dwelt  in  Jerusalem  ?  I 
tell  you,  Nay ;  but,  except  ye  repent  ye  shall  all  likewise  perish." 

Think  ye  that  those  six  or  seven  on  whom  the  New  York  Times 
has  fallen,  are  sinners  above  all  that  dwell  in  New  York  ?  Nay.  I 
say  to  every  man  that^  smuggles  goods  ;  to  every  man  that  sells  on 
false  invoices ;  to  every  man  that  fashions  things  deceitfully  ;  to 
every  man  that  carries  on  business  which  he  is  afraid  to  have  the 
light  of  God's  eye  rest  upon  ;  to  every  man  who  swears  falsely  in 
regard  to  his  afiairs,  and  gives  in  a  false  account  of  his  income  ;  to 
every  man  who  hides  his  prosperity  to  get  rid  of  paying  his  lawful 
and  just  taxes — I  say  to  every  such  man,  You  are  as  guilty  as  these 
detected  villains.  Ah  !  if  all  the  men  who  have  been  guilty  of  fraud 
in  New  York  were  to  have  a  tower  fall  on  them,  there  would  be  fu- 
nerals for  fifty  years  to  come  ! 

When  we  organize  deceit ;  when  it  is  thought  that  a  man  may 
be  respectable  who  is  known  to  heap  up  money  by  most  disreputable 
courses  ;  when  we  take  a  man  by  his  property,  instead  of  by  his 
character  ;  when  in  business  circles  things  that  are  atrocious  in  their 
nature,  such  as  the  tripping  up  of  men  unawares,  are  tolerated  ; 
when  in  the  bank,  in  the  broker's  office,  in  the  importer's  or  retailer's 
store,  or  in  the  street,  such  things  are  known,  and  become  so  smooth 
that,  as  even  in  my  own  case,  it  is  not  considered  a  thing  surprising 


70  CAUSE  AND  CUBE  OF  COEBUPTION 

to  offer  a  minister  two  bills — one  to  pay  on,  and  the  other  to  nin  to 
the  Custom  House  with ;  when  men  have  almost  lost  the  sense  of 
honor  and  honesty ;  when  the  community  is  a  dung-hill,  a  hot-bed, 
as  it  were,  of  corruption;  and  when  at  last  here  and  there  men  break 
out  into  ravening,  then  do  you  think  it  is  fitting  for  the  whole  com- 
munity to  prey  upon  them,  and  visit  them  with  a  fiery  storm,  as 
though  they  were  the  only  culpable  ones  ?  They  are  criminals ;  but 
they  are  only  mirrors  that  you  may  see  yourself  in.  Look  at  them, 
and  see  what  you  ai-e  when  you  are  dishonest.  Look  at  them,  and 
see  what  you  are  when  you  swindle  your  neighbor's  store.  That  is 
all  they  have  done.  Look  at  them  and  see  what  you  are  when  you 
cheat  at  the  Custom  House.  That  is  all  they  have  done.  Look  at 
them,  and  see  what  you  are  when  you  swear  falsely  in  regard  to 
taxation.  That  is  all  they  have  done.  What  have  they  done? 
Stolen  ?  So  have  you.  Lied  ?  So  have  you.  Been  false  to  their 
oaths  ?  So  have  you.  Men  might  have  necklaces  of  beads  almost 
uncountable  representing  their  wrong  deeds,  and  they  would  not  all 
be  represented.  One  string  about  their  neck  could  not  carry  them 
all. 

It  is  notorious,  flagrant  laxity  of  morals  in  business  that  breeds 
these  things.  And  when  you  are  looking  about  for  the  cure,  and 
asking,  "  Do  you  think  they  will  be  able  to  get  a  hold  on  them  ?'' 
"  Do  you  think  they  will  be  able  to  bring  them  to  justice  ?"  do  you 
want  all  the  criminals  brought  to  justice  ?  Do  you  want  God  to 
lay  judgment  to  the  line?  Do  you  want  the  wrong  traced  back  to 
business,  and  to  the  operators  in  business  ?  Are  you  willing  to  face 
God,  and  your  own  enlightened  conscience  m  the  presence  of  Al- 
mighty God  ?  Have  you  not  something  to  say  respecting  your  own 
deeds  as  school-masters  of  villains  ? 

I  would  not  have  you  judge  any  less  severely  of  the  flagrancy 
of  these  public  crimes  ;  but  I  would  have  you  intensify  in  yourselves 
the  sense  of  the  fact  that  multitudes  of  you  are  proceeding  on  prin- 
ciples identical  with  those  on  which  these  men  are  proceeding ;  that 
you  have  the  same  tendencies  to  want  of  virtue  that  they  have  ;  and 
that  you  owe  your  integrity  and  respectability  much  more  to  cir- 
cumstances than  to  conscience. 

Men  say,  "  You  cannot  conduct  business  according  to  a  straight 
rule.  There  must  be  equivocation.''  That  is  between  you  and  the 
judgment-day.  My  business  is  not  to  gloze  over  these  things.  I 
believe  that  truth  and  fair-dealing  are  in  the  long  run  the  best,  and 
that  any  business  which  cannot  be  conducted  on  that  ground  ought 
not  to  be  conducted  at  all.  A  man  who  cannot  prosper  in  that  way 
o'.iglit  not  to  prosper. 


IN  PUBLIC  AFFAIB8.  71 

Neither  ought  we  to  be  surprised,  it  seems  to  me,  when  we  con- 
sider what  has  been  the  conduct  of  political  affairs  among  -'^^'U,  what 
has  been  the  abuse  of  trust,  what  has  been  the  judgment  ol  the  pub- 
lic about  right  and  wrong  in  regard  to  public  affairs,  and  what  are 
the  ideas  into  which  the  young  are  educated.  What  is  politics  ? 
It  is  supposed  to  be  a  game,  and  at  that  a  game  of  cunning ;  a 
gambler's  game  ;  a  game  of  cards ;  a  game  of  loaded  dice ;  a  game 
in  this  respect,  that  the  lower  instincts,  the  basilar  faculties,  largely 
predominate  in  the  conduct  of  public  affairs.  It  has  come  to  be  be- 
lieved that  shrewdness  in  public  life  must  be  winked  at ;  that  you 
cannot  pull  up  the  tares  without  pulling  up  the  wheat  also.  I  ad- 
mit that  the  community  is  woven  together,  good  and  bad,  and  that 
to  pull  out  a  bad  thread  is  to  leave  a  hole,  and  spoil  the  fabric ; 
nevertheless,  while  you  cannot  control  these  things,  it  is  in  the 
power  of  the  individual  citizen  to  intend  i-ectitude  himself,  and  not 
venture  upon  anything  but  the  strictest  honesty  in  the  conduct  of 
public  affairs.  If  there  is  anything  that  should  touch  the  conscience, 
it  is  the  idea  of  serving  faithfulUy  the  whole  body  politic.  There 
is  something  noble  in  the  conception  of  a  com}7ionwea,\th. 

Plave  you  ever  looked  upon  New  York  at  night  as  the  moon  sil- 
vered all  the  scene  in  that  great  city.  Living  on  the  Heights, 
I  have,  many  and  many  a  time  ;  and  I  have  thought  of  the  house- 
holds ;  of  the  sweet  sleeping  children  that  filled  the  chambers ;  of 
the  sad  cases  of  sickness  that  were  there ;  of  the  repose  of  fatio-ued 
honest  laborers,  resting  for  the  morning.  I  have  thought  of  what 
a  mass  of  sentient  humanity  lay  at  rest,  with  only  the  all-loving 
God  to  take  care  of  them.  And  then  the  thought  of  that  provi- 
dence which  cared  for  the  whole,  even  as  the  father  cares  for  the 
children  in  the  family,  rose  in  strange  beauty  in  my  mind.  And 
nothing  seemed  more  truly  godlike  than  the  spirit  that  led  one  to 
look  comprehensively  on  the  whole  community  M'ith  a  feeling  of 
tenderness,  and  of  sympathy  for  individual  need  and  suffering. 

This  is  a  truly  heroic  and  far  from  romantic  notion  of  patriotism 
— the  love  of  country.  Many  a  man  loves  his  country  so  that  he 
will  die  for  it  in  battle,  but  not  enough  to  serve  it  honestly  in  peace. 
Our  young  men,  if  foreign  men  surprise  our  flag,  will  beat  down  all 
such  aggression  ;  but  then,  will  they  give  their  life  to  the  noble  ser- 
vice of  purity  ?  and  for  it  will  they  refuse  to  be  biased  ?  Will  each 
of  them  attempt  to  make  one  citizen  like  an  iron  link  in  a  chain  j^er. 
feet  ?  Too  many  of  our  young  men  are  brought  up  to  think  that 
parties  are  of  more  use  to  them  than  country ;  that  they  can  employ 
them  to  promote  their  own  p&rsonal  welfare.  They  see  in  politics  a 
way  of  making  money,  and  they  accept  it,  with  all  its  plottings,  and 


72  CAUSE  AND  CUBE  OF  COBEUFIION 

underminings,  and  various  iniquities.      So  they  serve  themselves 
while  their  fellow  men  ari.d  the  community  itself  are  sufiering. 

Take,  for  instance,  civic  life  in  Brooklyn.  Look  ■  at  the  way 
in  which  men  will  take  advantage  of  the  necessities  of  the  whole 
community.  If  it  is  in  the  power  of  men  to  get  possession  of  an 
article  which  is  indispensable  to  the  community,  and  put  three,  four, 
live  hundred  per  cent,  profit  on  it,  they  will  do  it.  And  there  is  no 
redress  for  such  extortion.  If  men  can  charge  five  or  six  times  the 
value  of  a  thing,  or  levy  blackmail,  they  do  not  lose  the  opportunity. 
If  men  can  milk  their  fellowmen,  stealing,  in  a  safe  way,  their  sub- 
stance, no  sense  of  right  or  justice  will  prevent  their  doing  it.  And 
these  things  are  winked  at.  If  a  man  who  is  ignorant  and  corrupt 
is  elected  to  ofiice,  we  take  ofi"  our  hats  to  him,  because  he  may  be 
able  to  dock  our  taxes. 

And  so  men  are  robbing  the  community  all  the  way  through. 
They  organize  a  system  of  spoils,  by  a  majority  here  and  there  ;  and 
lliey  are  filled  full  of  frauds.  And  by  and  by  when  a  man  a  little 
more  comprehensive,  and  organized  a  little  more  skillfully,  carries  oflT 
the  very  gates  of  the  Treasury,  as  did  Sampson  the  Gates  of  Gaza, 
on  his  back,  we  atone  for  our  misdeeds  by  crying  out,  "  Thief ! 
thief  !  thief  !  thief  !"  As  if  that  man  were  more  a  thief  than  you 
are  !  As  if  that  man  stole,  and  you  did  not  steal !  As  if  he  connived 
at  stealing,  and  you  did  not  connive  at  stealing  ! 

Such  men  are  boils  breaking  out  on  the  body  politic.  You  are 
the  body,  and  they  are  the  boils.  Look  at  these  men  and  their  deeds, 
and  you  will  see  yourself,  and  the  way  you  have  been  acting — only 
you  are  disguising  it,  and  making  believe  you  did  not,  or  not  admit- 
ting it  to  yourself  We  talk  about  "  yellow-covered  literatui-e."  If 
God  were  to  turn  the  leaves  of  the  book  of  your  inwai'd  life — of 
your  vain  desires ;  of  your  burning  averice  ;  of  your  tergiversations  ; 
of  your  ten  thousand  connivances  with  dishonesty — and  were  to 
read  that  book,  it  would  be  the  blackest  lettered  literature  that  ever 
you  saw. 

These  things  are  true,  and  they  are  things  which  it  behooves 

every  good  citizen  to  consider.     Not  that  these  public  criminals  are 

not  criminals. 

"  Those  eighteen  upon  whom  the  to-wer  in  Siloam  fell,  and  slew  them, 
think  ye  that  they  were  sinners  above  all  men  that  d  welt  in  Jerusalem  ?  I 
tell  you,  Nay  ;  but,  except  ye  repent,  ye  shall  all  likewise  perish." 

There  are  many  other  sources  from  which,  more  or  less,  these 
faults  spring.  I  will  not  weary  you  by  a  protracted  analysis  of 
them,  because  I  wish  to  indicate  one  or«two  points  of  remedy. 

First,  it  is  not  enough  that  we  should  oust  the  culpable  men. 


IN  P  UBLIC  AFFAIB8.  73 

Other  men  will  do  the  same  things  which  they  have  done  after  they 
are  gons,  if  the  same  influences  are  allowed  to  fester  and  work. 

The  old  carcass  lies  decaying  in  the  sun.  It  is  covered  all  over 
with  vermin.  Go  to-day  and  cleanse  it,  removing  every  maggot. 
Take  them  all  away,  and  leave  it  clean.  Go'back  again  to-morrow, 
and  "there  will  be  as  many  more.  The  carrion  corruption  is  there 
which  breeds  vermin.  Though  every  one  of  these  men,  as  some  ill-* 
advised  persons  have  suggested,  were  hung  to  a  lamp-post  before  his 
own  door,  as  an  example;  or,  though  they  were  convicted,  and 
were  obliged  to  disgorge,  and  Sing  Sing  were  engorged,  what  then  ? 
The  same  conscience  remaining,  and  the  same  facilities  for  fraud  re- 
maining, would  you  be  any  better  off?  Now  you  have  men  toler- 
ably full ;  then  you  would  have  men  tolerably  empty  ;  and  the  same 
thing  would  be  gone  through  wi»h  again.  It  would  be  an  illustra- 
tion of  the  tale  in  ^sop's  Fables,  where  it  is  said  that  an  old  swarm 
of  flies  do  not  take  much  blood,  but  that  new  ones  coming,  addi- 
tional blood  is  required  to  fill  them. 

These  men  should  be  made  examples  of.  They  should  be  tried 
and  convicted  and  punished.  They  should  be  punished  not  only  by 
public  sentiment,  but  by  public  law.  If  there  was  ever  a  case  for 
punishment  this  is  one.  But  that  is  not  going  to  cure  the  evil.  The 
law  cannot  cui-e  it.  You  must  cure  it.  A  part  of  the  cure  lies  in 
your  heart  ;  a  part  of  it  in  your  family  ;  a  part  of  it  in  the  common 
schools  ;  a  part  of  it  in  the  newspapers ;  a  part  of  it  here  in  this 
place,  and  in  me,  as  your  public  teacher  ;  a  part  of  it  in  the 
churches  ;  and  a  part  of  it  in  the  community.  We  must  all  of  us 
take  hold  in  earnest  in  this  matter.  It  will  not  be  sufiicient  to 
cleanse  the  outside  of  affairs  and  leave  the  inside  full  of  corruption. 
I  do  not  think  that  a  momentary  clapping  of  the  hands,  and  hurrah- 
ing, and  a  going  back,  then,  every  man  to  his  business,  and  forget- 
ting the.  evil,  will  ever  cleanse  the  body  politic. 

We  must,  therefore,  men  and  brethren,  take  hold  of  this  as 
school  work  and  church  work,  and  as  the  work  of  every  citizen  in  the 
commonwealth.  There  must  be  a  higher  sense  of  honor.  There  must 
be  an  ambition  of  integrity.  Somehow  or  other  there  must  come  up 
a  public  sentiment  that  shall  hold  a  man  who  speaks  the  truth  to  be 
better  than  a  man  who  does  not.  There  must  be  such  a  distinction 
made  between  integrity  and  want  of  integrity  that  everybody  shall 
feel  it.  You  must  emphasize  moral  qualities  more.  It  is  sad  to  re- 
flect that  a  good  quality,  or  a  good  character,  is  no  more  held  • 
in  esteem  by  the  community  than  a  bad  one.  It  is  a  humiliating 
fact  that  it  is  coming  to  be  regarded  that  the  better  men  are  the 
worse  their  chances  are,  and  that  it  is  said,  "  I  cannot  be  a  needle ; 


74  CAUSE  AND  CUBE  OF  COBBUPTION 

I  must  be  a  thread ;  for  if  I  am  to  go  in  and  out,  I  must  be  supple, 
and  bend  so  as  to  accommodate  myself  to  the  structure  whicli  I  am 
drawn  through." 

The  nation  must  be  made  to  understand,  fathers  and  mothers, 
that  a  man's  life  does  not  consist  in  the  abundance  of  the  things 
which  he  possesses.  Bread  is  good;  but  we  are  told  that  men  shall 
*uot  live  by  bread  alone.  Riches  are  good  ;  but  riches  do  not  feed 
sentiment.  It  is  good  for  a  man  to  have  political  power  ;  but  mere 
political  power  cannot  build  up  the  foundations  of  true  manhood. 
There  must  be  more  integrity  at  the  root.  There  must  be  more 
faith. 

I  would  not  draw  away  from  your  soul  the  intense  conviction  that 
you  need  spiritual  religion  ;  but  I  would  emphasize  the  fact  that  no 
spiritual  religion  has  any  roots  in  you  which  is  not  founded  in  most 
rigorous  morals.  And  these  terrible  revelations  which  have  been 
made,  while  on  the  one  side  they  excite  my  indignation,  on  the 
other  excite  deep  sympathy  in  me. 

You  know  that  I  have  been  blamed  for  severity  and  vehemence 
and  denunciation.  Yes,  when  everybody  else  was  still,  I  did  speak, 
and  I  spoke  loud;  but  now,  when  everybody  else  is  making  a  racket, 
I  feel  more  like  comforting  those  who  are  cast  down.  So  far  as 
I  can  do  it  in  consistency  with  jiublic  justice,  I  would  stand  by  their 
side,  that  they  be  not  overwhelmed.  For  they  are  men  ;  and  they 
suffer,  many  of  them,  doubtless,  as  you  never  suffered.  I  would  not 
forget  in  the  culi^rit  the  humanity.  I  would  look  as  I  suppose  God 
looks  upon  the  great  sinning  world,  abhorring  iniquity,  and  longing 
to  save  men  out  of  it.  I  look  upon  men  who  in  many  respects  have 
good  qualities,  and  long  for  their  redemption.  And  I  would  take  part 
of  the  blame  myself    I  would  also  distribute  part  of  it  on  you. 

Fathei'S,  mothers,  fellow-citizens,  men,  brethren,  countrymen,  is 
it  not  time  for  us  to  take  hold  of  hands  for  more  integrity  ;  for 
moi-e  purity  in  business  and  politics  and  statesmanship ;  for  a  higher 
standard  of  morals  in  everything  and  everywhere  ;  for  more  noble 
manhood  ;  for  a  better  life,  serving  God  by  temporal  things,  as  well 
as  by  prayers  and  hymns  and  spiritual  songs.  If  there  shall  rise  up 
such  a  correction  of  jDublic  sentiment,  not  only  will  there  be  less 
corruption,  but  there  will  be  less  tendency  of  the  body  politic 
to  break  out  in  these  sores  and  consummate  themselves. 

There  is  no  showy  service  that  I  call  you  to.  I  call  you  to 
no  public  demonstrations  or  meetings.  I  simply  call  you  to  the 
humble  and  necessary  work  of  self-examination.  I  press  upon  you 
the  duties  of  manhood.  I  urge  you  to  bear  witness  to  truth  and 
honor  and  integrity.  I  hold  up  belore  you  the  need  of  purifying  the 


I2f  P  UBLIG  AFFAIRS.  7  5 

house,  the  store,  and  everything  you  touch  in  politics  or  public 
aiFairs.  And  it  is  not  possible  that  living  men  should  do  that,  and 
adhere  to  it,  and  exert  themselves  for  it,  without  soon  finding  that 
the  tide  is  turning,  and  that  we  have  gone  over  this  depression,  and 
that  the  whole  system  has  risen  to  a  higher  tone  and  a  healthier  con- 
dition. 

May  God  inspire  us  to  true  patriotism  as  a  part  of  our  piety ; 
and  after  spending  the  remainder  of  our  years  in  usefulness  here, 
may  we  rise  to  a  nobler  service  in  the  world  beyond. 


PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON". 

Because  thou  art  merciful,  slow  to  anger,  gracious  to  forgive,  O  Lord  our 
God,  we  are  not  consumed.    We  are  not  permitted  to  draw  near  to  thee  be- 
cause we  are  better  than  others.    We  do  not  come  feeling  our  innocence,  nor 
conscious  of  any  merit.    We  come  burdened  with  a  sense  of  evil.     We  come 
deeply  repenting  of  transgression.    We  know  that  we  are  joined  to  the  whole 
race  in  their  weakness  and  in  their  fallibleness,  and  that  with  them  we  have 
broken  thy  law,  sinned,  done  evil  in  thy  sight,  and  that  we  are  altogether 
unlovely.    We  cannot  ask  thee  to  love  us  because  we  are  lovable.    We  look 
away  from  ourselves  wholly  to  that  which  is  in  thee.    We  can  scarcely  under- 
stan(J  the  gi'eatness  of  that  nature  which  can  comprehend  things  so  diverse, 
and  bear  with  those  who  are  so  unlovely,  and  so  false  to  everything  that  is 
divine.    Thou  takest  into  the  great  arms  of  thy  love,  and  into  the  bosom  of 
thy  goodness  those  who  are  far  from  thee — yea,  those  who  are  even  enemies, 
that  contest  purity,  and  resist  good,  and  are  unwilling  to  become  good. 
Thou  dost  warm  them  by  thy  heart ;  thou  dost  spare  them  by  thy  mercy ; 
thou  dost  build  them  up  both  outwardly  and  inwardly ;  thou  art  preparing 
them  to  love  that  which  is  good.    We  desire  to  belong  to  that  number.    We 
see  that  we  are  most  unworthy ;  we  see  how  prone  to  earth  we  are ;  we  see 
how  again  we  are  drawn  back  by  fatal  gravitation ;  we  se^that  our  steps 
are  slow,  and  that  not  unfrequently  we  go  in  wrong  ways.    Yet,  we  do  not 
love  the  evil  nor  the  wrong,  but  turn  from  it  with  confessions  of  sorrow, 
and  with  humiUation,  and  come  back  to  the  Shepherd  and  Bishop  of  our 
souls.    We  cannot  ask  thee  even  to  judge  vis  by  that  which  is  best  in  our  best 
hours.    But  thou  art  good,  and  thou  art  the  cause  of  that  which  is  good  in 
us.    By  the  grace  of  God  we  are  what  we  are — not  by  truth,  nor  by  fidelity, 
nor  by  good  intentions.    With  ourselves  is  the  non-performing ;  with  thee 
the  attainment.    With  us  is  the  evil ;  with  thee  the  grace.    With  us  is  ail  that 
is  selfish  and  imtoward ;  with  thee  all  that  is  forgiving  and  most  glorious  in 
mercy.     Such  a  one  thou  art,  O  Lord  our  God,  as  we  need.    By  help  ob' 
tained  of  thee  we  have  continued  thus  far ;  and  by  thy  grace  we  must  go  to 
the  end.    Impart  to  every  one  of  us  the  desire  to  avoid  that  which  is  wrong. 
Grant  us  forgiveness  that  we  ever  attempt  to  hide  our  sins  from  thee.    May 
we,  rather,  tiy  to  turn  away  from  them.    May  the  abhorrence  of  evil  in  our- 
selves grow  stronger  and  stronger.    May  we  love  that  which  is  good,  and 
cleave  to  it.    May  we  grow  more  and  more  sensitive  to  that  which  is  right. 
May  we  love  justice,  and  legislate  it,  and  learn  to  carry  it  forward  beyond 
the  measure  of  ordinary  men.    May  we  seek  to  be  more  generous,  more 
noble,  more  sincere,  more  upright,  more  transparently  truthful  than  other 
men  require  us  to  be.    May  we  seek  to  fashion  ourselves  before  thine  eye  and 


76  CAUSE  AND  CUBE  OF  CORBUFTION 

-by  thy  teachings,  so  that  when  we  come  into  judgment  we  shall  not  be 
judged  by  the  measure  of  human  law,  but  by  the  measure  of  thy  law. 

O  Lord  our  God,  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  have  compassion  upon  those  who 
are  tempted  more  than  they  are  able  to  bear.  Open  a  door  of  escape  for 
them.  Grant  that  those  who  tempt  may  be  baffled,  and  that  all  snares,  and 
pit-falls,  and  traps,  and  devices  of  wicked  men  for  their  greedy  gains,  and 
for  the  destruction  of  their  victims,  may  come  to  naught.  Surely,  in  vain 
the  net  is  spread  in  the  sight  of  any  bird.  May  the  snares  of  evil  men  become 
apparent  to  those  for  whom  they  are  set. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilfc  help  all  those  who  seek  to  mend  the  evil,  and  cor- 
rect the  things  that  are  wrong.  Bless  those  who  labor  for  the  promotion  of 
temperance ;  for  the  moderation  of  evil  desires ;  for  the  restoration  of  those 
that  have  stumbled  and  fallen,  and  are  not  able  to  restore  themselves.  Bless 
the  labors  of  those  that  seek  the  welfare  of  the  community ;  that  endeavor 
to  cleanse  its  thoroughfares ;  that  would  elevate  more  and  more  the  con- 
sciences of  men  who  are  acting  in  public. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  stretch  forth  thy  hand  over  this  great  people,  and 
restore  them  again  to  justice  as  they  were  in  the  beginning.  Give  us  wise 
ma^nstrates,  incorrupt  judges,  and  pure  citizenship.  More  and  more  may 
men  strive  together  for  the  things  which  are  honest  and  of  good  report. 

And  we  pray  that  intelligence  may  spread,  that  schools  may  more  and 
more  be  fostered  in  every  neighborhood,  and  that  men  may  not  be  entrap- 
ped by  ignorance  or  superstition  and  every  form  of  wickedness  which  comes 
unawares.  We  pray  that  men  may  be  exalted  and  strengthened  in  their 
nolDler  parts,  and  enabled  to  control  that  which  is  best  in  themselves. 

And  may  not  this  nation  grow  overripe  or  rotten  in  its  prosperity.  Thou 
hast  planted  it  as  a  tree  by  the  living  waters.  Behold  how  broad  ane  the 
branches  that  come  out  from  it,  and  that  shall  reach  from  ocean  to  ocean. 
Grant  that  this  tree  may  be  as  a  tree  of  life  on  the  earth.  How  many  mis- 
chiefs have  come  from  the  strength  of  nations  that  lifted  themselves  up  in 
their  greatness  and  trampled  down  those  around  about  them !  Let  this  nation 
stand  we  pray  thee,  conspicuous  for  integrity;  for  mercy;  for  humanity; 
for  liberty ;  for  sympathy  with  all  that  need  sympathy.  And  we  pray  that 
its  mission  in  the  earth  may  be  one  of  peace  and  of  righteousness. 

We  beseech  of  thee  to  purify  thy  churches  of  every  name.  Give  a  better 
d  nobler  te&per  to  those  who  minister  in  righteousness.  Wilt  thou  have 
all  the  earth  before  thee  in  compassion  every  day.  For  the  whole  earth  is 
•  k  All  things  strive  against  thee.  Thou  that  hast  been  the  Master  of  ages 
^^^ne  by— wilt  thou  not  still  guide  this  world  in  ages  yet  to  come?  Though 
fh  storm  be  severe?  though  the  winds  be  loud,  and  though  thou  art  seem- 
•  ^Iv  asleep,  rise  thou  that  dost  command  all  things,  and  there  shalt  be  a 
calm  and  the  ship  shall  come  safely  to  her  harbor.  Let  thy  kingdom  come, 
and  thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven. 

We  ask  it  in  the  name  of  the  Beloved,  to  whom,  with  the  Father  and  the 
Spirit,  shall  be  praises  everlasting.    Amen, 


V. 

Working  with  God. 


INVOCATION. 

Thou  Eternal  Giver  of  good,  remember  us  this  morning,  as  thou  hast 
remembered  us ;  for  all  our  thoughts  of  good  and  of  thee  are  but  the  solicita- 
tions of  thy  Spirit,  and  we  are  glad  v/hen  we  are  hungry  in  our  souls,  because 
we  know  that  thou  art  standing  near  with  the  bread  of  life.  Dear  Father, 
we  come  this  morning,  thy  children ;  and  though  imperfect  and  sinful,  and 
unable  to  speak  the  language  of  our  Father's  household  except  as  children 
speak  in  broken  syllables,  we  draw  near  to  thee,  feeling  that  thou  art  such  an 
One  as  will  be  touched  with  the  feeling  of  our  infirmity,  and  that  our  very 
sins  will  lead  thee  to  graeiousness  and  to  pity.  Have  compassion  upon  us, 
this  morning,  and  breathe  thy  life  into  oure,  that  we  maj'  have  discernment 
in  spiritual  things ;  that  we  may  be  able  to  find  thee  with  devotion ;  that  our 
heai-ts  may  reach  out  in  prayer  to  thee— yea,  and  that  we  may  crown  thee 
with  our  praises.  Do  not  put  us  away,  nor  lift  clouds  between  us  and  thee, 
but  reveal  thyself  to  every  needy  soul  to-day,  that  thy  sanctuary  may  be  to 
each  one  of  us  as  the  gate  of  heaven.  We  ask  it  in  the  adorable  name  of 
Jesus,  to  whom,  with  the  Father  and  the  Spirit,  shall  be  praises  evermore. 
Amen. 
5. 


WOEKING  ¥ITH  GOD. 


For  we  are  laborers  together  with  God."— 1  Cok.  III.,  9. 


It  may  be  doubted  whethei-  any  such  comprehensive  idea  of 
God's  work  through  the  ages  on  earth  entered  into  the  apostle's 
mind,  as  has  gradually  grown  up  in  ours.  It  is  not  necessary  to  sup- 
pose that  the  apo&tles  knew  better  than  we  know,  of  the  truths  of 
Christianity  Undoubtedly  the  apostles  understood  that  which  the 
prophets  only  saw  dimly  ;  and  unquestionably  life  and  experience 
have  developed  in  the  church  riper  conce2:)tions  of  many  truths 
than  existed  in  the  minds  of  the  apostles  that  taught  those  truths. 
In  other  words,  truth  has  in  itself  an  expansive  and  growing  nature, 
and  unfolds  by  that  inward  divine  force  which  belongs  to  it,  and  in 
every  age  is  larger.  The  truth,  as  a  tree,  is  the  same,  but  with  more 
branches  and  wider  outspread,  and  more  abundant  fruit.  As  trees 
come  to  their  full  nature  by  growth,  so  does  the  truth.  Paul's 
earlier  letters  show  that  he  certainly  expected  Christ  to  reappear 
and  wind  up  all  things  in  his  day ;  but  the  traces  of  this  expecta- 
tion die  out,  and  in  his  later  epistles  Paul  speaks  not  so  much 
of  Christ's  coming  as  of  his  own  going  toward  Christ  and  the  other 
life.  These  later  letters  show  that  the  horizon  had  expanded  before 
him  ;  and  he  dwells  less  on  the  earthly  consummation,  and  more 
upon  the  glory  and  grandeur  of  the  Christian  kingdom  in  heavenly 
places  in  Christ  Jesus. 

One  thing  is  clear  :  Paul,  whatever  might  have  been  his  view  of 
the  present  or  of  the  future,  had  risen  above  all  the  narrowness  and 
fanatical  exclusiveness  of  his  sect.  For  he  was  of  the  straiohtest 
sect,  he  tells  us,  of  the  Pharisees.  He  had  come  to  look  upon  the 
work  of  God  as  vast,  including  within  it  incomputable  forces  and " 
immeasurable  materials.  And  I  suppose  that  the  element  of  time  had 
come  at  last  in  the  apostle's  mind  to  constitute  no  small  part  of  the 
history  of  the  future.  Perhaps  beyond  any  other,  Paul  had  a  sense 
of  God's  presence  in  time  and  in  the  whole  flow  of  history.  Men 
were  all  working ;  events  were  transpiring  under  the  influence  of 
natural  causes ;  but  there  was  something  besides  this,  in  his  mind. 

•itrsDAT  Morning.  Oct.  8,  1871.     Lesson  :   1  Cob.  m.    Hymns  (Plymouth  Collec- 
tion;, Nos.  269, 1^35,  U5L 


80  WOEKING  WITH  GOB. 

The  causes  were  building.  Thei*e  was  an  interior  and  a  spiritual 
result  all  the  time  behind  the  visible  and  the  exterior.  Wars,  peace  ; 
governments,  anarchies ;  industries,  husbandry,  commerce — these 
did  not  stop  with  their  first  and  mere  material  products.  They 
were  building,  or  furnishing  materials  for  building,  the  great  spiritu- 
al kingdom  of  the  divine  realm.  "  All  things,"  said  the  apostle, 
"  work  together  for  good."  All  time,  and  all  its  fluxing  industries ; 
all  its  whirl  and  distemperature ;  all  its  strifes  and  conflicts  ;  the 
great  racketing  world  was  working,  not  for  what  it  thought  of,  it- 
self, but  for  what  God  behind  it  was  thinking  of.  Paul  felt  that 
there  was  a  universal  power  back  of  every  movement  of  time,  out 
of  which  came  all  the  inspiration  by  which  men  wrought,  and  into 
which  flowed  back  again  all  that  fliey  did  worthily.  The  univer- 
sality and  supremacy  of  God  in  all  the  affairs  of  this  world ;  the  in- 
tegrity and  force  of  its  material  laws  in  the  operation  and  in  the 
productiveness  of  the  human  mind,  and  the  still  higher  form  of 
natural  law,  filled  the  apostle's  imagination.  There  is  nowhere  to 
be  found,  I  think,  more  clearly  than  in  the  letters  of  this  magnifi- 
cent man,  the  sense  of  the  pervading  influence — the  immediate,  im- 
minent influence — of  the  divine  forces,  both  to  set  on  foot  and  to 
receive  the  things  that  are  done.  Cause  and  effect  throughout  the 
realm,  to  Paul,  were  God.  Answering  to  the  Hebrew  declaration, 
he  was  the  first  and  the  last — the  beginning  and  the  end. 

Dropping  Paul,  and  filling  out  now  his  views,  we  may  say  that 
the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth  is  something  grander  and  larger  than 
anything  which  yet  appears,  and  that  it  consists  essentially  in  the 
life-forces  of  mankind.  It  is  not  so  much  in  what  is  made ;  it  is  not 
so  much  in  the  cities  that  are  built ;  it  is  not  so  much  in  the  so- 
cieties that  are  framed,  nor  in  the  laws  that  are  established,  nor  in 
the  treasures  that  are  accumulated,  that  the  kingdom  of  God  con- 
sists :  That  kingdom  lies  in  the  life-forces  which  produce  these 
things,  and  which  are  themselves  produced,  educated,  carried  up 
and  harmonized.  God's  kingdom  is  no  sectarian  parcel  of  men  ;  it  is 
commensurate  with  the  horizon.  The  Jews  believed  God  to  be  their 
'private  national  property  ;  and  it  required  a  special  revelation  to 
teach  them  that  the  Gentiles  had  rights  in  God  as  well  as  they. 

Christians  are  prone  to  think  that  God  is  the  God  of  Christians ; 
but  he  is  the  God  of  the  heathen,  too.  And  God's  kingdom  can 
never  reach  its  bounds  until  the  race — until  all  nations,  and  all 
tongues,  and  all  people  on  the  globe — are  included  in  it :  not  in 
any  outward  form  ;  not  in  their  mere  spiritual  aspects  ;  but  in  the 
totality  of  their  life-force.  The  kingdom  of  God  includes  the  physi- 
cal elements  as  instruments,  and  as  controlling  forces.     It  incluii^fta 


WORKING  WITH  GOD.  81 

wise  civil  organization.  All  social  and  strictly  moral  and  spiritual 
elements  belong  to  it.  God's  church  on  earth  is  ultimately  to  be  all 
mankind.  The  churches  that  are,  are  relative  to  the  great  church 
that  is  to  be.  We  are  seeking  to  find  one  pattern  to  which  every- 
thing else  is  to  be  brought ;  and  we  forget  that  the  Church  in  this 
state  of  the  development  of  the  race  is  but  a  path.  It  is  not  the 
thing  which  we  are  after ;  it  is  something  that  leads  to  Avhat  we 
want.  It  is  the  way  by  which  we  are  going,  and  through  which  we 
are  passing ;  and  it  is  not  to  be  disesteemed. 

Nor  are  we  to  treat  with  contempt  the  claim  of  one  or  another 
church  to  be  better  or  relatively  wiser  than  some  others.     But, 
after  all,  present   forms  of  organization  are  subsidiary  and  tran- 
sient.    The  vital  form  of  the  kingdom  of  God  in  this  world  is  not 
to  be  that  which  any  single  sect  takes.    Sects  are  but  school-houses; 
and  perfect  education  takes  a  man  out  of  the  school-house  and  puts 
him  into  life.     And  all  forms  of  organization — civil,  social,  moral, 
and  spiritual — are  things  relative.    The  true  church  is  to  include  the 
sum  total  of  sanctified,  purified,  developed  and  ennobled  life-force 
in  all  the  races  of  the  globe.     Such  is  to  be  the  church  universal,  in 
BO  far  as  this  world  is  concerned.     At  any  one  time  God's  kino-dom 
is  the  sum  of  the  sanctified  manhood  on  earth.      Whoever  is  work- 
ing in  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  and  for  the  things  that  are  pure,  and  just, 
and  true,  and  of  good  report,  according  to  the  light  which  he  has, 
and  according  to  the  sphere  in  which,  by  God's  providence,  he  is 
placed,  belongs  to  that  kingdom,  baptized  or  unbaptized,  with  the 
name,  or  without  the  name  of  a  sect,  and  with  or  without  the  name 
of  Christ.     It  is  the  /Spirit  of  Christ  that  makes  the  man  his — not 
the  signature ;  not  the  outward  semblance  ;  not  the  mere  letters 
which  spell  the  name.     It  is  that  which  indicates  the  Spirit  of 
Christ  that  makes  us  his.     Wherever  there  is  one  who,  according  to 
the  best  light  he  has,  and  according  to  the  sphere    in  which  he 
finds  himself,  is  working  toward  the  things  for  which  God  is  always 
working — there  is  one  to  whom  you  have  a  right  to  say,  "  You  are 
a  laborer  together  with  God."     No  man  runs  out  on  any  line  of 
natural  law,  no  man  follows  any  line  of  social  law,  no  man  goes 
along  the  line  of  any  sj)iritual  law,  earnestly  and  honestly,  and  with 
the  very  best  light  of  which  he  is  susceptible,  that  you  may  not  say 
to  him,  "  You  are  a  worker  and  laborer  with  God." 

This  divine  kingdom  is  the  work  of  ages.  In  its  nature  it  cannot 
be  sudden.  It  accords  with  universal  law,  and  is  progressive.  In 
any  great  result,  we  see,  not  the  hand  of  him  that  puts  the  latest 
touches  to  the  work,  but  behind  the  result  the  hand  that  prepared 
the  way  for  it.  We  perceive  great  attainments  in  spiritual  directions 


82  WOBKma  WITS  GOD. 

in  our  day  ;  but  the  ages  wont  in  travail  to  bring  forth  these  attain- 
ments. We  sometimes  arrogate  to  ourselves  the  credit  for  clearer 
views  of  truth ;  but  it  was  the  toil,  the  thought,  the  exercitation  of 
hoary  scholars,  laboring  through  scores  of  yeai'S,  that  prepared  the 
glass  through  which,  at  last,  we  are  able  to  behold  the  heavens,  and 
sweep  the  constellations  thereof.  "We  say  and  do  in  our  time, 
doubtless,  many  things  that  are  wise,  and  good,  and  pleasing  before 
God,  and  profitable  unto  men  ;  but  we  are  not  the  makers  of  those 
things  which  are  accomplished  under  our  hands.  We  are  workers 
together  with  God ;  and  God  is  the  master  Worker,  who,  through 
ages,  puts  together  all  the  efforts  of  all  men,  and  all  the  effects  of  all 
causes.  He  makes  the  fabric ;  we  but  spin  the  thread.  Michael 
Angelo,  doubtless  the  greatest  artist  in  certain  directions  that  the 
world  has  ever  seen,  painted  marvelously  in  the  Sistine  chapel  ;  but 
the  chapel  had  to  be  built  before  he  could  paint  in  it  ;  and  he  was 
indebted  to  every  man  who  carried  a  bucket  of  water  ;  to  every 
mason  who  used  a  trowel ;  to  every  carpenter  who  shoved  a  plane,  or 
moved  a  saAV. 

Men  had  to  grope  through  many  ages  before  they  knew  how  to 
put  up  a  hut.  Then  after  many  generations  more  they  learned  to 
build  a  house.  Then  they  learned  to  erect  a  mansion.  Finally  they 
learned  to  rear  palaces,  and  then  temples,  and  then  gorgeous 
temples.  But  the  knowing  how  to  build  was  itself  the  work  of  ages 
after  ages. 

Late  in  the  history  of  the  world  came  Michael  Angelo.  There 
had  been  painters  before  him ;  and  there  had  been  painters  before 
them ;  and  there  had  been  painters  before  them  again.  He  was  the 
product  of  generations  of  striving  men.  And  what  he  did — well,  he 
did  it;  but  he  was  simply  the  point  through  which  all  the  efforts  of 
the  time  past  were  expressing  themselves.  His  art  was  the  result 
of  ages.  Great  as  he  was,  he  stood  in  his  place  in  a  long  line  of 
those  who  before  him  were  working  out  the  beautiful  art  by  Divine 
guidance. 

And  so,  this  kingdom  of  God,  which  consists  in  the  sum  of  all 
the  sanctified  forces  of  the  human  race  on  earth,  and  which  is 
a  gradual  and  progressive  kingdom,  has  been  spreading  from  the 
first,  sometimes  in  one  direction  and  sometimes  in  another ;  to-day 
in  this  nation,  and  to-morrow  in  another  nation,  and  the  next  day  in 
another.  But  the  sum  of  all  is  finally  to  be  gathered  up  by  the 
great  Worker,  the  one  Artist,  the  only  supervising  Mind — God. 
And  men — generations  of  men,  men  of  all  descriptions,  geniuses 
of  every  class — are  nothing  but  workers.  God  lays  the  plan,  and 
never  tells  men  what  the  plan  is.     God  it  is  that  inspires  in  every 


WORKING  WITH  GOB.  83 

age  and  direction  ;  and  he  does  not  let  men  even  know  whither  they 
are  going,  any  more  than  a  child  knows  where  among  the  stars  the 
earth  swings  every  night,  and  travels  every  day.  He  is  the  one 
great  Planner  and  Architect  and  Artist,  and  he  gives  final  and  com- 
plete form  to  the  things  which  we  fragmentarily  do.  All  men  are 
not  simply  laborers  with  God,  but  they  are  hired-men,  day-laborers. 
The  proudest,  the  highest,  and  the  wisest  man;  the  man  above 
whom  there  is  no  other ;  the  mitered  bishop ;  the  hoary  scholar,  deep- 
furrowed  with  thought,  after  all  is  nothing  but  God's  hired-man,  an 
apprentice,  a  journeyman,  a  day-laborer,  a  workman.  God  is  the 
one  great  Employer,  Thinker,  Planner,  Supervisor. 

But,  while  all  intelligent  work,  from  the  very  nature  of  man,  re- 
quires that  it  should  be  done  for  a  special  age  and  for  a  special  pur- 
pose, yet  the  great  Worker  above  all  employs  our  work  for  much 
grander  ends  than  we  ourselves  conceive  or  design.  Our  woi-k, 
in  one  sense,  is  far  less  than  our  pride  thinks.  In  another  sense  it  is 
far  greater  than  our  pride  thinks.  All  right-living  and  all  good 
working  is  more  important  than  we  imagine,  or  can  imagine.  All 
things  that  think,  and  feel,  and  will,  and  act  in  the  direction  in 
which  God  thinks  and  feels  and  wills  and  acts,  and  that  follow  those 
great  lines  of  law  which  express  the  divine  will  and  the  divine 
purpose — these  have  an  importance  that  we  cannot  understand  here, 
though  we  shall  yet  one  day  understand  them. 

Men  are  working  in  a  thousand  ways,  as  it  is  necessary  that  they 
should,  according  to  the  nature  that  is  given  to  them.  They  are 
putting  forth  all  their  life-force  upon  things  which  really  seem 
transient,  but  out  of  which  something  is  gathered.  The  great  cart 
can  hardly  hold  the  straw  and  chaff  of  the  wheat  that  a  little  boy 
can  carry  on  his  back.  And  as  wheat  is  produced  by  an  immense 
amount  of  straw  and  chaff,  so  in  the  world's  harvest  it  seems  needful 
that  men  should  do  ten  thousand  things  which  perish  like  chaff  and 
straw.  But  there  is  something  garnered  out  of  them  and  saved — 
though  we  cannot  always  tell  where,  or  when,  or  how  much. 

This  work,  in  its  fullest  extent,  will  require  the  whole  roll  of 
mankind.  This  work  of  God  in  the  world  we  have  but  a  very  im- 
perfect conception  of.  We  think  our  business  in  this  world  is  to 
gather  as  many  into  the  church  as  we  can.  That  is  our  business. 
And  usually  the  members  of  any  particular  church  or  sect  feel  that 
it  is  their  duty  to  press  that  church  as  far  as  they  can.  There  is  no 
harm  in  that.  But  if  we  suppose  that  God's  work  is  done  in  any  of 
the  churches,  or  that  any  of  the  churches  represent  the  final  form  of 
God's  great  work  in  this  world,  how  universally  defective  is  our  im- 
agination !  and  how  far  we  are  beneath  the  very  letter,  and  certainly 


84  WOBKING  WITH  GOD. 

the  spirit  of  Christianity !  It  cloth  not  appear  what  we  shall  be  our- 
selves in  the  other  life  ;  and  still  less  doth  it  appear  what  this 
work  shall  be  in  the  ages  to  come,  even  in  this  world,  saving  men  as 
they  die  off  from  the  earth,  generations  going  up  in  sequence, 
marching  to  the  time  of  the  solemn  drum-beat.  It  is  their  own  pulse 
by  which  God  marks  time.  All  races  are  moving.  Some  think,  some 
feel,  some  plan,  some  work,  and  each  one  with  some  specialty.  And 
God  uses  that  specialty  silently  for  the  production  of  transcendently 
higher  results  than  the  individual  workmen  suspect.  And  it  shall 
appear  in  the  ages  to  come. 

If  these  things  are  so ;  if,  after  all,  there  is  this  underlying  divine 
spirit  in  providence  and  history,  in  time  and  among  men,  and  in  all 
their  works ;  and  if  this  divine  spirit  comprises  every  part  of  human 
life — all  that  belongs  to  our  animal  nature,  our  social  condition,  our 
civil  estate,  our  industrial  relations,  and  our  moral  and  spiritual 
interests ;  and  if  all  of  them  are  but  so  many  elements  which  God 
himself  is  employing  in  you,  in  me,  in  our  race,  in  our  nation,  in  all 
races  and  nations  in  every  age,  and  he  is  molding  and  preparing 
them  for  the  final  form — if  these  things  be  so,  then  how  sublime  be- 
comes the  apostolic  declaration  to  every  one  of  us : 
"Ye  are  laborers  together  with  God!" 

We  are  not  isolated.  We  are  not  doing  the  limited  work  which 
we  seem  to  be  doing.  We  are  working  in  a  scheme  which  has  God 
for  the  Architect,  and  Superintendent,  and  Finisher. 

Now,  see  how  the  text  runs.     You  perhaps  thought  I  had  for- 
gotten my  text ;  but  I  have  only  just  come  to  it. 
"  Who  then  is  Paul,  and  who  is  ApoUos  ?" 

God's  slaves ;  servants.  It  is  translated  "  ministers  ";  but  min- 
isters have  come  to  be  such  a  sort  of  men  that  you  never  would  dream 
that  we  mean  servants  when  we  say  ministers.  When  the  apostle 
spoke,  to  be  a  minister  was  to  be  a  slave.  That  is,  a  man  who  acted 
absolutely  under  the  direction  of  Another,  as  Paul  and  Apollos  did, 
was  God's  slave,  a  servant,  by  lohom  men  believed,  even  as  the  Lord 
gave  to  every  man.  It  is  as  if  Paul  said :  "  I  planted — that  was  my 
part ;  Apollos  watered — that  was  his  part ;  and  God  gave  the  in- 
crease. There  was  something  behind  me  and  my  inspiration.  There 
was  something  behind  the  wisdom  and  fidelity  of  Apollos.  We 
threw  our  toil  into  a  great  realm  where  there  was  another  Spirit 
ready,  who  caught  it  up,  and  made  a  use  of  it  that  we  never  could. 
I  planted  and  Apollos  watered  under  such  conditions  that  God  gave 
the  increase." 

"  So  then,  neither  he  that  plantcth  anything,  neither  he  that  watereth— " 

I  beg  your  pardon.     It's  not  so.     If  there  were  no  planting,  do 

you  suppose  anything  would  come  to  pass  ?    Do  you  suppose  there 


WOBEING  WITH  GOD.  85 

would  be  any  wheat  if  there  were  nobody  to  sow  it  ?  Do  you  sup- 
pose there  would  be  any  corn  if  there  were  nobody  to  plant  it  ?  And 
will  things  gi'ow  without  water  ? 

"  So  then  neither  is  he  that  planteth  anything,  neither  he  that  watereth ; 
but  God  that  giveth  the  increase." 

Now,  when  a  man  plants,  and  when  he  tills,  with  God  behind  him, 
both  the  planter  and  the  cultivator  are  of  importance ;  but  alone 
they  are  no  more  important  than  the  soil  or  the  seed  is  without  the 
sun  in  the  heaven  which  brings  surarner  and  growth. 

'•  For  we  are  laborers  together  with  God." 

Our  labor  is  indissolubly  joined  with  his.  All  that  which  we  do 
worthily,  and  which  is  of  any  account,  is  vitalized  as  well  as  planned 
by  the  all-pervading  and  ever-present  spirit  of  the  divine  Soul  in  the 
world. 

"We  are  laborers  together  with  God." 

Weak  man,  how  strong  you  are  if  you  are  working  with  God  ! 
Strong  man,  how  foolish  it  is  for  you  to  think  that  you  are  working 
alone,  when  it  is  God  that  is  working  in  you,  and  when  it  is  he,  and 
not  you,  that  is  doing  the  work.  Wise  man,  you  are  of  very  little 
account.  What  if  the  pane  of  glass  should  take  credit  for  the  light 
that  comes  through  it  ?  It  is  the  sun  that  makes  the  light.  Artist 
genius,  it  is  God's  spirit  that  is  working  in  your  spirit,  and  you  are 
a  laborer  together  with  him,  not  only,  but  it  is  in  him,  and  through 
him,  and  by  him,  that  you  do  that  which  you  do  worthily. 

This  is  a  doctrine  which  throws  a  great  deal  of  light  and  comfort 
into  many  low  and  dark  places ;  and  it  ought  to  take  down  the  proud 
looks  of  those  who  stand  in.  high  places  and  arrogate  to  themselves 
that  which  does  not  belong  ta  them.  The  everlasting  aristocracy  of 
men,  the  everlasting  lifting  of  men  above  their  fellow  men — how  is  it 
rebuked  in  this  declaration  !  If  you  plan  and  do  anything  well  and 
wisely,  it  is  God  that  put  it  in  you,  and  that  works  it  out  through 
you.  And  how  does  it  bring  up  the  low  places  to  us  !  God  works 
by  the  least  and  lowest  things  more  than  we  can  imagine. 

So  much  for  the  foundation.     Now  for  the  applications. 

1.  In  view  of  these  considerations,  I  remark  that  the  work  which 
men  perform  in  this  world  is  both  far  greater  and  far  less  than  they 
suppose.  As  it  leaves  man's  hands,  human  work  is  poor,  in  the  main  • 
but  as  it  is  remoulded  of  God,  it  becomes  most  noble  and  most 
glorious. 

When  seed- wheat  leaves  the  farmer's  hands,  it  is  good  for  that 
which  you  know  it  will  come  to  by  growth ;  but  how  poor  is  that 
which  it  will  come  to  by  growth,  as  compared  with  that  which  it  is 
when  it  leaves  the  miller's  hands  I      But  the  flour  when  it  comes 


8^  WOBKING  WITH  GOD. 

from  the  miller's  hands,  is  poor  as  compared  with  the  loaf  when  it 
comes  from  the  baker's  oven.  And  the  loaf  when  it  leaves  the 
baker's  oven  is  poor  as  compared  with  the  man  who  has  eaten  it, 
and  in  whom  the  bread  has  added  itself  to  brain  and  muscle,  and  is 
workino-,  having  ^become  a  part  of  him,  so  that  we  do  not  say 
*•  wheat  "  any  more. 

Our  work,  then,  when  we  perform  it,  when  it  leaves  our  hands, 
oftentimes  is  far  back  of  what  it  is  coming  to.  We  may  in  our  ig- 
norance put  an  estimate  upon  it,  and  stamp  it  with  some  value ;  but, 
after  all,  that  which  makes  it  valuable  is  what  it  receives  afterward. 
We  are  the  workers.  We  produce  the  raw  material.  It  is  manu- 
factured by  the  hand  of  God  in  the  great  mill  of  his  universal  laws. 
It  is  what  it  is  made  to  work  out  by  the  divine  power,  that  gives  it 
value.  And  what  that  is  nobody  can  tell.  Paul  plants,  and  ApoUos 
waters  ;  and  all  things  are  pouring  forward  into  the  great  stream  of 
events  and  results.  God  it  is  that  gives  them  shape,  builds  them 
into  forms,  and  uses  them. 

2.  God  overrules  the  conflicts  of  life,  and  bi'ings  them  to  a  final 
harmony.  Judging  from  the  endless  divisions  and  contentions  of 
the  world,  it  would  seem  as  though  there  was  no  God ;  and  men  have 
been  tempted  to  doubt  the  existence  of  a  God.  The  deepest-natured, 
the  deepest-minded  men,  of  every  age,  have  always  been  the  most 
skeptical.  Not  that  they  went  into  captivity  to  skepticism;  but 
havino-  the  clearest  conception  of  what  a  true  moral  government 
should  be,  they  felt  the  most  intensely  the  want  of  such  a  moral  gov- 
ernment in  society.  Those  who  have  the  keenest  sense  of  divine 
harmony  in  human  afiairs,  most  feel  the  existence  of  discord  in  those 

affairs. 

This  has  not  been  peculiar  to  any  generation.  Men  have  been 
disturbed  by  contentions,  and  divisions,  and  quarrels  in  the  schools 
of  philosophy.  I  had  almost  said  that  there  never  have  been  two 
parallel  schools.  They  squabbled  in  Babylon,  they  quarreled  in 
Greece,  and  they  quarreled  in  Rome.  In  mediaeval  Europe,  as  much 
as  in  modern  Europe,  there  never  was  harmony  in  philosophic  schools. 
About  government  and  about  the  administration  of  civil  law  the 
world  has  been  divided.  In  the  competitions  of  commerce,  and  of 
all  manner  of  domestic  and  international  proceedings,  the  world  has 
never  been  at  one.  It  has  forever  been  in  conflicts,  and  rivalries, 
and  resistances. 

And  that  which  has  taken  place  in  philosophy  and  government 
and  industrial  pursuits,  has  taken  place  in  religious  beliefs.  In  other 
words,  the  divisions  and  conflicts  which  men  have  gone  through  on 
serious  religious  topics,  are  parallel  to  those  which  belong  to  the 


WOBKING  WITH  GOD.  87 

race  in  every  other  direction,  and  are  in  strict   analogy  with  them. 

This  seems  a  very  rude  way  of  bringing  out  final  forms  of  glory. 
It  seems  as  though  it  would  have  been  a  great  deal  easier  and  better 
for  the  Lord  to  have  laid  a  foundation  for  the  earth,  and  put  soil 
in,  as  we  put  dirt  in  the  flower-pot,  and  stick  in  trees  of  every  kind ; 
but  he  did  not  do  so.  He  set  vast  masses  of  ice  in  motion,  and 
ground  down  rocks.  That  was  one  part  of  the  process.  He  made 
lichens  to  grow,  and  die,  and  become  food  for  a  higher  order  of 
growth.  Out  of  the  debris  of  former  organizations,  higher  and 
higher  organizations  of  vegetable  matter  were  produced.  And  they 
died,  and  contributed  to  results  that  were  still  higher.  And  so,  what 
with  grinding  rocks,  and  growths,  and  perishings,  and  new  growths, 
through  successive  generations,  the  world  moved  forward  in  an 
ascending  scale.  In  long  ages,  beyond  which  the  imagination  cannot 
reach,  this  great  globe  was  getting  ready  to  be  a  habitable  house 
for  the  race  of  man.  God  prepared  it  for  this  use  by  slow  attritions. 
And  in  strict  analogy  with  this  has  been  the  development  of  men. 

But  when  anything  stai'ts  out  anew  in  progressive  unfolding, 
men  scoff  and  say,  "  See  what  sort  of  scum  it  stirs  up.  See  what 
kind  of  people  it  produces.  See  how  things  run  together.  See  what 
quan-eliugs  there  are.  See  what  ups  and  downs  there  are  on  every 
hand." 

I  should  like  to  know  if  John  the  Baptist  came  with  robes  and 
velvet  slippers.  I  should  like  to  know  if  he  did  not  come  eating  lo- 
custs and  wild  honey.  I  should  like  to  know  if  when  he  came  he 
was  not  rude  and  hirsute,  and  if  all  reformations  do  not  come  with 
flails.  I  should  like  to  know  if  the  world  has  traveled  in  smooth 
paths.  I  should  like  to  know  if  from  the  beginning  there  have  not 
been  attritions,  and  quarrels,  and  contentions.  Has  there  been  any- 
thing else  ?  Has  not  God  produced  every  gi*eat  element  of  change 
by  tears  ?  Tears  and  blood  have  been  the  cement  by  which  God  has 
built  this  world.  Is  it  not  by  the  mistakes  which  men  have  made 
that  we  have  learned  wisdom?  Hardly  anything  that  men  have 
ever  done  in  this  world  that  was  worth  remaining  has  been  done  at 
once.  Here  has  been  the  garden ;  and  here  has  been  the  gate ;  and 
men  wanting  to  get  in  have  begun  just  at  one  side,  and  have  butted 
their  heads  against  every  single  picket  all  around  the  enclosui-e  until 
they  got  back  to  the  gate  again  ;  and  then  they  stumbled  in  by  acci- 
dent, after  every  conceivable  effort,  and  happened  to  hit  the  golden 
mean,  and  called  it  a  "  discovery."  All  the  world  has  been  toiling 
and  travailing  in  pain  until  now.  There  are  no  forms  of  conflict,  no 
forms  of  collision,  no  forms  of  suffering,  that  it  has  not  gone  through. 
And  that  which  is  worth  preserving  to-day,  is  that  which  has  been 


88  WORKING  WITH  GOB. 

wrought  out  "by  the  trials  of  the  race  of  mankind  on  this  earth  everj 
since  the  day  when  God  created  them.  Christ's  suffering  was  not  a 
thing  separated  from  the  course  of  time.  It  was  the  most  illustrious 
presentation  of  the  very  genius  of  God  in  the  work  of  upbuilding. 
By  his  suffering  we  are  helped ;  and  by  the  suffering  of  mankind  Ave 
are  helped.  I  do  not  mean  to  compare  the  suffering  of  man  with 
that  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus.  I  hold  the  suffering  of  God  to  be  incom-' 
parably  greater  and  inconceivably  more  sublime  ;  but  I  believe  that 
there  is  an  analogy  between  the  suffering  of  God  and  the  suffering 
of  men,  and  that  the  suffering  of  Christ  Jesus,  set  down  in  our  at- 
mosphere, expressed,  in  terms  that  we  ■  can  understand,  the  vast 
truth  in  respect  to  development  through  suffering. 

When,  therefore,  men  are  divided,  or  are  in  conflict,  you  must 
not  think  that  God  has  gone  away  and  given  up  the  world.  Foolish 
men  !  Well,  God  has  been  using  fools  all  the  world  over.  He  has 
been  using  short-sighted  men  and  sinful  men  from  the  beginning. 
He  never  had  any  others  under  his  care  in  this  world.  If  he  were 
to  blow  the  trumpet  to-day,  and  call  only  sanctified  persons,  there 
would  not  be  one  to  march  under  his  banner.  No  army  could  be 
raised  unless  it  were  made  of  sinners — imperfect  human  beings — 
blind,  erratic,  conflicting,  quarreling  men.  Methinks  God  has  to  tax 
his  long-suffering  patience  to  get  along  with  the  very  best  of  men. 
God  forbid  that  I  should  say  anything  against  good  men  in  any 
church.  But  what  has  been  the  history  of  the  Roman  Churcli '? 
What  has  been  the  history  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  England  and 
America  ?  No  mistakes  there  ;  straight  as  an  arrow ;  no  rebound  ; 
no  splinters;  all  right ;  harmonious;  perfect;  iAe  Church !  What 
has  been  the  history  of  the  Methodist  Church — another  form  of 
Episcopacy  ?  What  has  been  the  history  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  ?  Indeed,  the  only  perfect  church  in  the  world,  you  know, 
is  the  Congregational  Church!  No  heresy  there;  no  persecutions 
there  ;  no  short-sighted  men  there ;  no  inchoate,  imperfect  work 
there  ! 

Oh,  hear  men  quarrel  about  churches  !  Look  at  the  churches  and 
see  what  they  are.  Where  is  there  a  church  that  is  much  more 
than  a  raft  for  bringing  men  across  the  deluge  ?  Some  are  a  little 
better,  and  some  are  a  little  worse ;  but  all  are  imperfect  and  poor. 
God  is  the  perfect  worker.  And  how  is  it  that  we  are  so  notoriously 
and  flagrantly  intolerant,  taking  each  other  by  the  throat,  and  chok- 
ing each  other,  as  it  were,  saying,  "  Follow  me;  follow  me."  Who 
is  Paul,  and  who  is  Apollos,  that  they  should  turn  and  tell  men  to 
follow  them  ?  God  only  is  right,  and  we  are  nothing  but  his  work- 
men. 


WOEKING  WITH  GOB.  89 

Men  and  brethren,  God  did  not  give  you  common  sense  to  be 
thrown  away  on  religion.  Look  at  these  things  in  the  light  of  com- 
mon sense.  Churches  are  good  for  what  they  do,  and  not  a  bit 
more.  You  might  put  the  image  and  superscription  of  Caesar  on 
copper,  and  it  would  not  be  gold,  though  it  was  said  to  be  gold ; 
and  a  church  that  like  Christ  suffers  and  endures  and  achieves,  is 
worth  just  so  much  and  no  more.  And  any  church  is  valuable  in 
the  proportion  in  which  it  brings  about  good  results.  And  there  is 
not  a  faithful  church  which  has  not  in  it  heroes  and  martyrs.  There 
is  not  a  church  that  has  not  ministered  some  material  to  that  other 
kingdom  which  lies  beyond  the  visible.  But  no  men,  members  of 
churches  though  they  be,  are  so  infallible  as  to  have  any  right  to  be 
arrogant.  Every  church  has  a  right  to  exist  in  which  there  are 
members  enough  to  keep  it  together ;  and  it  has  a  right  to  do  as 
much  work  along  the  liAe  of  God's  providence  as  it  can ;  it  may 
work  just  as  hard  as  it  pleases,  but  it  has  no  right  to  throw  stones 
at  its  neighbors.  It  has  no  right  to  claim  that  it  has  the  last  thought 
of  God  on  the  subject  of  truth,  on  the  subject  of  order  and  discip- 
line, or  on  the  subject  of  the  development  of  the  human  race.  Men 
in  churches  are  only  God's  workmen,  and  they  must  not  take  on  airs. 

3.  Men  should  be  encouraged  by  the  thought  of  God's  presence 
with  them,  and' sustaining  them. 
"  It  is  God  that  worketh  in  you." 

This  declaration  ought  to  be  a  comfort  to  all  who  put  forth,  con- 
sciously, feeble  hands  to  perform  difficult  tasks.  Fidelity  in  the 
least  things  will  surely  find  its  reward ;  for  it  is  God  that  is  inspir- 
ing us  and  working  in  us. 

There  comes  over  to  our  shores  a  poor  stone-cutter.  The  times 
are  so  bad  at  home  that  he  is  scarcely  able  to  earn  bread  enough  to 
eat ;  and  by  a  whole  year's  stinting  economy  he  manages  to  get  to- 
gether just  enough  to  pay  for  a  steerage  passage  to  this  country. 
He  comes  homeless  and  acquaintanceless,  and  lands  in  New  York, 
and  wanders  over  to  Brooklyn,  and  seeks  employment.  He  is 
ashamed  to  beg  bread ;  and  yet  he  is  hungry.  The  yards  are  all 
full ;  but  still,  as  he  is  an  expert  stone-cutter,  a  man,  out  of  charity, 
says,  "  Well,  I  will  give  you  a  little  work — enough  to  enable  you 
to  pay  for  your  board."  And  he  shows  him  a  block  of  stone  to  work 
on.  What  rs  it  ?  One  of  many  parts  w^hich  are  to  form  some  orna- 
ment. Here  is  just  a  quirl  of  fern  ;  and  there  is  a  bi-anch  of  what  is 
probably  to  be  a  flower.  He  goes  to  work  on  this  stone,  and  most 
patiently  shapes  it.  He  carves  that  bit  of  a  fern,  putting  all  his 
skill  and  taste  into  it.  And  by  and  by  the  master  says,  "  Well 
done,"  and  takes  it  away,  and  gives  him  another  block,  and  tells  him 


90  WOEKING  WITH  GOD. 

to  work  on  that.  And  so  he  works  on  that,  from  the  rising  of  the 
sun  till  the  going  down  of  the  same,  and  he  only  knows  that  he  is 
earning  his  bread.  And  he  continues  to  put  all  his  skill  and  taste 
into  his  work.  He  has  no  idea  of  what  use  will  he  made  of  those 
few  stems  which  he  has  been  carving,  until  afterwards,  when,  one 
day,  walking  along  the  street,  and  looking  up  at  the  front  of  the 
Art  Gallery,  he  sees  the  stones  upon  which  he  has  worked.  He  did 
not  know  what  they  were  for ;  but  the  architect  did.  And  as  he 
stands  looking  at  his  work  on  that  structure  which  is  the  beauty  of 
the  whole  street,  the  tears  drop  down  from  his  eyes,  and  he  says, 
"  I  am  glad  I  did  it  well."  And  every  day,  as  he  passes  that  way, 
he  says  to  himself  exultingly,  "  I  did  it  well."  He  did  not  draw 
the  design,  nor  plan  the  building ;  and  he  knew  nothing  of  what  use 
was  to  be  made  of  his  work ;  but  he  took  pains  in  cutting  those 
stems  ;  and  when  he  saw  that  they  were  ar  part  of  that  magnificent 
structure,  his  soul  rejoiced. 

Dear  brethren,  though  the  work  which  you  are  doing  seems 
small,  put  your  heart  in  it ;  do  the  best  you  can  wherever  you  are  ; 
and  by  and  by  God  will  show  you  where  he  has  put  that  work. 
And  when  you  see  it  stand  in  that  great  structure  which  He  is  build- 
ing, you  will  rejoice  in  every  single  moment  of  fidelity  with  which 
you  wrought.  Do  not  let  the  seeming  littleness  of  what  you  are 
doing  now  damp  your  fidelity. 

4.  Let  every  one  work  according  to  his  light,  and  according  to 
his  opportunity  ;  for  it  is  God  that  rewai'ds.  He  gives  grace  to  the 
humble.     And  grace  is  beauty,  I  think. 

Go  with  me  to  Mansfield,  Connecticut,  and  I  will  show  you  a 
scene  that  is  not  very  agreeable — namely,  ten  thousand  worms  eat- 
ing mulberry  leaves,  and  making  a  noise  like  rain  pouring  on  a  roof. 
Is  there  anything  more  disgustful?  When  they  are  about  done 
eating,  you  will  see  them  commence,  with  strange  antics,  to  weave  a 
sepulchral  cocoon.  They  are  going  to  sleep.  They  do  not  know 
what  for.  Their  instinct  does  not  teach  them  that.  It  only  teaches 
them  to  build  their  tombs  out  of  their  bodies.  They  draw  out  the 
glutinoiis  matter  into  a  fine  thread,  and  wind  it  around  and  around 
them ;  and  finally  they  go  to  sleep,  and  close  uj)  the  orifice ;  and 
there  they  lie.  Then  comes  a  man  who  takes  those  cocoons.  After 
some  little  preparation  he  unwinds  the  silk.  And  then  it  is  spun ; 
and  then  it  is  woven ;  and  then  it  is  dyed  ;  and  then  it  is  shaped  ; 
and  a  queenly  form  wears  the  gorgeous  silk ;  and  it  is  the  admiration 
of  all  the  people  round  about:  That  is  the  result.  But  the  worm 
only  made  the  thread  ;  and  the  spindle  doubled  and  twisted  it ;  ai  d 
the  loom  made  the  fabric ;  and  other  hands  took  the  fabric,  aud 
shaped  it  to  the  human  form  j  and  a  human  being  wore  iL 


WOBKING  WITH  GOD.  SI 

When  God  puts  on  the  robe,  the  threads  oi*  films  of  which  you 
have  worked  out  in  this  life ;  when  he  puts  together  the  various 
parts  of  the  garment  which  you  are  helping  to  make,  you  will  be 
glad  of  everything  you  have  done,  if  you  have  done  it  faithfully. 

What  if  you  are  in  a  humble  place,  and  no  man  sees  you,  and 
hears  you  ?  What  if  your  name  does  not  get  into  the  newspapers  ? 
So  much  the  better.  Why  does  a  man  want  a  pillory  ?  Is  it  not 
better  to  work  without  praise  than  with  it  ?  Woi'k  well ;  work 
with  all  your  strength  ;  and  work  where  you  are  until  God  calls  you 
higher.  Work  so  well  below  that  he  cannot  afford  to  keep  you 
there.  Men  go  around  looking  for  higher  places  ;  but  the  way  to  get 
higher  is  to  work  so  well  that  it  is  bad  economy  to  have  you  in  a 
lower  place.  Then  you  will  go  up  by  natural  force.  Put  your 
best  work  into  every  place  where  God  calls  you. 

It  is  related  (I  do  not  know  with  how  much  truth)  that  when 
Phidias  was  carving  the  statue  of  Diana  to  be  placed  on  the  Acropo- 
lis, he  was  working  at  the  backside  of  the  head,  and  was  bringing 
out  with  his  chisel  every  filament  of  the  hair,  as  far  as  it  could  be 
done  in  marble ;  and  it  was  said  to  him,  "  That  figure  is  to  go  up  a 
hundred  feet,  and  is  to  stand  with  its  back  to  the  marble  wall ;  and 
who  will  ever  know  what  work  you  put  there  ?"  But  replied  he, 
"  The  gods  will  know,"  and  worked  on. 

Now,  do  not  hesitate  to  put  your  best  work  in  the  lowliest 
places  ;  for  if  other  folks  do  not  know  it  God  will. 

5.  The  interactions  of  all  true  work,  and  its  consummation  by 
God,  affords  a  real  comfort  to  all  who  see  others  do  a  great  deal, 
while  they  do  but  very  little.  I  have  been  called  to  the  side  of  per- 
sons who  have  been  confined  to  a  sick  bed  for  months,  and  some- 
times even  for  years — spirits  that  one  might  suppose  would  natural- 
ly have  had  a  function  in  life,  but  for  whom  there  was  nothing  to 
do  but  to  lie,  white  as  the  linen  in  which  they  were  enveloped,  and 
who  wondered  why  God  should  let  others  have  opportunity,  and 
they  should  have  none.  My  friend,  there  is  something  to  be  done 
by  lying  still,  often,  as  well  as  by  moving  about.  Besides,  you  are 
one  of  the  great  body  of  God's  laborers,  and  you  have  a  share  in 
the  sum  total  of  all  the  work  which  is  done  by  all  your  brethren. 

If  there  is  anything  I  like  to  see,  it  is,  when  the  clock  strikes 
twelve  (it  is  astonishing  how  quick  the  ear  is  to  detect  the  stroke 
of  twelve !)  to  see  the  workmen  all  fling  off,  and,  if  it  is  summer, 
gather  themselves  in  the  shade  of  some  tree  or  rock.  Then  you 
shall  see  the  little  maiden  pattering  round  the  corner,  with  a  basket 
or  pail  on  her  arm.  What  is  in  it  ?  The  workman's  dinner,  along 
with  the  mother's  blessing.  I  sometimes  stand  and  see  the  men  open 


92  WOBKING  WITH  GOD. 

their  dinner.  I  was  once  asked  to  help  eat  it.  I  considered  it 
a  compliment.  The  white  bread,  and  the  store  of  meat,  and  all  the 
other  little  perquisites,  making  a  relishful  dinner,  sent  by  the  mother 
to  the  father,  looked  tempting  enough. 

Now,  when  the  cathedral  is  done,  has  not  that  little  girl  a  right 
to  stand  and  say,  "I  helped  to  build  that"  ?  You  !  Show  me  what 
you  did.  "  I  carried  the  dinner  pail  to  my  father  while  he  worked." 
Well,  she  was  a  worker. 

Any  man  who  supports  anybody  ;  any  man  who  gives  what  is 
better  than  silver  and  gold,  or  conveys  a  higher  conception  of  it, 
any  man  who  gives  hope  and  encouragement  to  another,  is  helping 
to  build  God's  great  temple.  You  may  not  be  able  to  speak  in 
meeting,  or  write  poetry,  or  deliver  discourses,  or  run  about  and  dis- 
tribute the  charities  of  God.  You  may  be  shut  oiF  from  all  activity. 
And  then  all  you  can  do  is  to  be  patient  and  serene,  and  pray  to 
God.  That  is  your  part,  and  God  blesses  it.  And  it  is  no  mean 
part. 

Ah  !  when  the  trumpeter  sounds  his  trumpet,  and  it  is  heard  afar 
off  by  every  soldier,  do  you  not  suppose  that  trumpet  warning 
is  moi'e  than  the  stroke  of  any  single  man  who  goes  into  the  battle  ? 
He  who  inspires  other  people ;  he  who  teaches  men  that  the  human 
soul  can  rise  above  its  infirmities  ;  he  Avho  in  any  way  helps  men 
more  easily  and  more  successfully  to  carry  the  burdens  of  this  life, 
and  prepare  for  a  state  of  blessedness  in  the  other  life,  is  a  prophet, 
and  a  worker  together  with  God. 

If,  then,  God  has  put  you  in  a  humble  place  in  the  world ;  if  you 
are  placed  below  many  of  your  fellows  who  are  apparently  no  more 
deserving  than  you  are,  do  not  comphxin.  Willingly  stand  where 
God  wants  you  to  stand.  Be  a  witness  for  God  wherever  you  are. 
So  you  will  be  one  of  God's  workers  ;  in  the  other  life  it  will  be 
known  what  you  have  done  ;  and  it  will  be  no  inconspicuous  share 
of  that  great  work  which  is  going  on  under  God's  supervision. 

6.  A  generous  contentment  can  and  should  inspire  homely  work, 
by  a  consideration  of  its  relations  to  the  welfare  of  society.  The 
greatest  part  of  the  things  which  are  to  be  done  in  this  world  are 
thino-s  which  men  do  not  like  to  do.  More  than  half  the  trades  that 
men  follow  are  not  trades  that  are  acceptable  to  those  who  follow 
them.  I  do  not  wonder  that  the  artist  loves  to  paint.  Painting  is 
intrinsically  pleasant.  In  sitting  before  the  canvas  and  evolving 
one's  fancies  in  color  and  form  there  is  reward  at  every  step.  But 
the  work  of  the  plumber,  he  burrowing  like  a  mole,  lying  in  cramped 
positions,  and  choked  and  chilled  in  damp  and  dark  places,  where 
what  he  does  will  not  be  seen — that   is  not  agreeable.     The  hod- 


WOEKING  WITH  GOD.  93 

carrier  does  not  like  his  work.  lie  tliat  mixes  the  mortar  does  not 
like  his  work.  Boys  that  open  and  shut  stores  do  not  find  their 
duties  pleasant.  The  greatest  number  of  men  who  Avork  in  this 
world  are  obliged  to  work  on  things  which  are  not  in  themselves 
particularly  pleasant.  Therefore  there  should  be  some  high  moral 
consideration  that  should  inspire  and  help  them.  They  should 
remember  not  only  that  God  put  them  where  they  are,  but  that 
every  man  who  does  anything  is  working  for  the  cause  of  God. 

When  the  Israelites  would  fain  have  the  gold  for  their  taber- 
nacle, they  called  for  contributions.  The  rich  sent  theirs,  and  the 
poor  sent  theirs.  Everybody  sent  something  of  silver  or  gold.  Some 
sent  the  ornaments  which  they  had.  Suppose  among  the  rest  a  Jew- 
ish maiden  who  had  nothing  in  the  world  to  give  but  a  ring  that 
her  mother,  who  had  gone  up  to  the  God  of  Israel,  gave  her.  Others 
were  carrying  their  superfluous  gold,  and  she  could  not  stay  at 
home  and.  see  all  her  sisters  and  friends  giving  something  to  the 
Lord's  sanctuary,  and  give  nothing  herself.  So  she  drew  off  the  ring 
from  her  slender  finger,  and  carried  it  and  put  it  in  with  the  other 
gifts.  It  amounted  to  but  little,  and  it  seemed  small  to  those  who 
looked  on.  It  scarcely  tinkled  as  it  Avent  down  into  the  treasury. 
But  oh  !  was  it  not  much  to  her  ?  And  when  he  who  laid  an  ever- 
lasting blessing  on  the  example  of  the  widow  who  cast  in  her  mite, 
saying,  "  She  has  given  more  than  they  all" — when  he  beheld  the 
offering  of  that  poor  Jewish  maid,  do  not  you  suppose  his  eye  rested 
on  that  more  than  on  the  larger  gifts  of  those  who  were  rich  ? 

No  matter  what  you  are  doing,  no  matter  how  humble  a  sphere 
yon  are  called  to  work  in,  whatever  you  have  to  do,  do  it  with  all 
your  might,  because  you  are  working  for  God. 

I  bless  God  for  that  one  thing  which  the  apostle  said  to  slaves. 
If  there  is  one  class  of  men  who  would  not  have  the  least  motive 
for  fidelity  to  another,  it  would  be  they  who  did  not  own  themselves ; 
and  he  told  them  not  to  lie,  not  to  purloin,  but  to  be  industrious,  to 
be  obedient,  and  to  serve  their  masters  with  all  fidelity.  It  used  to 
be  convenient  to  stop  there  ;  but  what  did  the  apostle  say  further  ? 
"  As  to  the  Lord,  and  not  unto  men." 

As  much  as  to  say,  "  There  could  not  be  one  single  motive  drawn 
from  any  such  relation  as  that  which  exists  between  you  and  your 
masters  ;  but  serve  as  unto  Christ — not  as  unto  them." 

So,  in  all  our  relations  in  life  we  are  workers  with  God,  and  Ave 
are  Avorkers  for  the  same  great  ends  for  Avhich  God  Avorks,  and 
which  he  has  been  compassing  through  generations  countless.  And 
since  Ave  are  Avorking  with  him,  let  us  make  the  least  contributions 
nobly,  generously,  gladly,  and  rejoice  in  our  Avork  as  Ave  go  along. 

But  I  must  close  j  the  theme  is  larger  than  the  time.    What  you 


94  WOBKING  WITH  GOD. 

are  to  do  in  this  great  work  of  God,  make  haste  to  do  quickly.  The 
time  is  short.  You  must  be  active  while  there  is  opportunity.  In 
your  houses ;  in  the  thoroughfares  where  men  meet ;  in  your  relations 
to  society  ;  in  the  church  ;  in  the  outwalk  of  charity  ;  Avherever  you 
are,  whatever  gifts  of  thought  or  hand  you  have  to  contribute,  give 
them  freely  and  gladly.  The  Lord  loves  a  cheerful  giver.  Remember 
that  you  are  giving,  not  to  man,  but  to  God  ;  and  remember  that 
you  are  working,  not  for  men,  but  for  God.  Remember  that  he  takes 
your  gifts  and  molds  them  into  shape ;  and  that  he  takes  your  work, 
and  adds  it  to  the  work  which,  through  all  his  creatures,  he  is  work- 
ing out.  And  when  you  look  back  from  the  other  life  upon  what 
you  did  here,  though  it  seemed  poor  and  mean  to  you  at  the  time, 
you  will  marvel  at  the  wondrous  grace  and  beauty  which  there  is 
in  it. 

You  are  working  for  a  good  and  generous  Master.  So  work  well 
and  work  long,  and  do  not  seek  the  glory  till  you  rise  to  receive  it 
in  the  light  of  his  countenance.  For  all  things  are  yours,  in  life  and 
in  death.  All  men  are  yours.  The  heavenly  host  are  yours.  You 
are  Christ's,  and  Christ  is  God's.  The  glory  of  the  final  estate  will 
be  yours,  and  you  will  have  your  share  in  the  resplendent  wealth 
of  God  Almighty's  universe. 


PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

Thou,  O  God,  art  the  only  one  to  whom  we  can  come  without  reserve ; 
for,  thou  understandest  perfectly  the  thoughts  and  the  intents  of  our  heart, 
long  before  they  are  framed  into  feelings.  Thou  seest  the  rising  germs. 
Long  before  they  blossom  or  bring  forth  fruit  thovi  knowest  -what  is  in  them. 
We  are  dwelling  in  the  sphere  where  thou  hast  planted  us,  under  the  laws 
which  thou  hast  established  ;  and  thou  art  altogether  acquainted  with  our 
weakness;  with  our  infirmity ;  with  our  transgression ;  with  our  aspiration; 
with  our  struggle  for  that  which  we  desire ;  for  our  conflicts  against  evil. 
Thou  that  hast  been  a  sufferer,  Jesus,  almighty  now,  now  ui  the  realm  of 
light  and  victory — thou  hast  been  a  man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted  With 
grief.  Thou  hast  walked  in  our  places.  Upon  thee  hath  fallen  the  buffet. 
Upon  thee  hath  rested  the  crown.  Upon  thee  came  care  and  temptation. 
Upon  thee  broke  all  those  waves  which  sway  hither  and  thither  the  sympa- 
thies of  men.  Thou  wert  tempted  in  all  points  like  as  we  are,  yet  without 
sin.  It  is  some  hope  and  some  comfort  to  know  that  there  has  been  a  sinles;< 
Nature.  We  cannot  aspire  to  walk  in  thy  steps,  and  to  the  very  end.  Until 
the  last  breath  we  must  be  conscious  that  thou  art  taking  care  of  us,  not 
because  we  are  perfect,  but  as  sinful  creatures.  We  are  by  the  grace  of  God 
saved.  It  is  not  of  ourselves— it  is  of  thy  love,  of  thy  abundant  mercy,  thai 
we  are  spared.  And  this  is  the  light  that  comes  forth  from  thee ;  this  is  the 
glory  and  the  whole  atmosphere  of  heaven — the  helpful,  pitying,  enriching 
love  of  God,  pouring  forth  endlessly,  and  in  circuits  beyond  all  measui^e- 
meut,  all  conception.  Thou  dost  take  us  up  in  our  littleness,  and  mold  ua 
little  by  little  out  of  our  imperfections,  pardoning,  sparing,  waiting,  and  still 
waiting  with  everlasting  suffering— long  suffering— for  the  realms  which  thou 


WORKING  WITH  GOD.  95 

hast  created.  Thou  art  the  wondrous-working  God,  the  School-master  of 
the  Universe,  the  Nurse  of  things  tliat  are.  Thou  art  the  Friend  of  the 
friendless.  Thou  art  the  Brother  of  those  that  need  some  one  to  guide  them. 
Thou  art  the  Counselor.  Thou  art  the  bright  Way.  Thou  art  the  Door  at 
the  end  thereat.  Thou  art  the  Bread  of  life  to  every  one  that  hungers. 
Thou  art  the  Water  of  life  to  those  that  are  athirst.  Thou  art  the  Star  when 
no  moon  shines  in  our  night,  and  no  sun  in  our  day.  Thou  art  the  Sun  of 
righteousness  with  healing  in  its  beams.  What  thou  art,  what  all  this  means, 
we  cannot  tell.  Sometimes  thou  seemest  as  one,  and  sometimes  another; 
but  always  full  of  grace,  always  wise,  always  gentle,  and  always  desiring  to 
draw  us  up  toward  that  incomprehensible  sphere  in  which  thou  art  dwelling 
thyself.  We  hear  thy  voice — yet  not  outwardly.  We  feel  thy  leading — yet 
our  hand  touchest  nothing.  Thou  art  in  us ;  thou  art  around  us.  This  we 
know — that  of  all  creatures  we  should  be  most  orphaned  and  desolate,  if  the 
world  were  to  our  belief  empty  of  thee.  Nor  can  we  be  desolate  if  the  v/orld 
is  full  of  thy  presence,  and  if  thou  dost  by  thy  Spirit  make  us  to  know  that 
we  are  the  sons  of  God.  Blessed  be  thy  name  that  thou  dost  not  require  per- 
fection ;  that  we  do  not  need  to  wait  until  we  are  perfect  before  we  present 
ourselves  to  thee.  To  thee  came  the  lame,  the  halt  and  the  blind ;  to  thee 
came  the  deaf ;  to  thee  came,  borne,  the  very  dead ;  and  thou  didst  give  all 
that  which  they  needed.  To  thee  still  come  the  blind,  the  deaf,  the  lame 
and  the  dead  in  transgression  and  in  sin ;  and  thou  art  more  wondrously 
working  miracles  of  mercy.  Blessed  be  thy  name  for  all  thy  grace  and  for 
all  thy  goodness.  Teach  us  how  better  to  understand  thee ;  and  that  we  may 
understand  thee  better,  teach  us  how  to  imitate  thee,  and  how  to  be  to  other 
men  something  of  all  that  which  thou  art  to  us — as  lenient,  as  gentle,  as 
patient,  as  forgiving,  as  loving,  as  helpful,  as  self-denying,  as  long-suffering. 
And  we  beseech  of  thee  that  thus  bringing  unto  ourselves  something  of  that 
life  which  thou  art  living,  we  may  be  able  to  lift  our  imagination  to  a  higher 
conception  of  what  is  the  grandeur  and  the  fullness  of  thy  divine  life.  And 
so  may  we  grow  in  grace  and  in  the  knowledge  of  om*  Lord  and  Saviour. 
Jesus  Christ. 

Draw  near  to  thy  servants  this  morning  in  tby  presence ;  and  may  each 
one  of  them  feel  that  thou  art  standing  over  against  him  as  well  as  over 
against  the  congregation,  and  saying  to  him,  What  is  thy  petition  ?  Accept 
the  thanksgiving  of  those  whose  hearts  overflow  to-day  with  thanks.  Grant, 
we  pray  thee,  that  those  who  yearn  to-day  to  love  thee  more,  may  feel  that 
thou  dost  recognize  their  desire,  and  that  thou  art  graciously  pleased  to 
accept  their  affection.  May  those  who  look  dimly,  but  cannot  see  thee,  and 
who  yet  discern  something,  behold  thee  more  clearly  revealed  to  their  faith. 
And  if  thou  art  coming  to  any  upon  the  sea  again  at  night,  and  they  aie  ter- 
rified at  thy  coming,  and  it  seems  to  them  as  though  it  were  a  day  of  judg- 
ment and  condemnation,  speak  to  them,  and  say.  It  is  I ;  be  not  afraid.  Out 
of  every  Providence  which  draws  near,  speak  to  us,  Saviour,  saying.  It  is  I. 
May  we  believe  that  all  things  work  together  for  good  to  them  that  love  God. 
May  we  have  this  sovereign  assurance.  Direct  all  that  we  do.  May  we  love 
God  with  implicit  tnist.  Draw  near  to  those  who  are  heavy  laden.  Grant 
that  they  may  hear  thee  say  to  them.  Come  to  me  all  ye  that  labor  and  are 
heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest.  And  may  they  find  rest  under  thf 
burdens ;  and  may  they  find  that  thy  yoke  is  not  a  restraint. 

Grant  that  to  those  who  this  morning  from  afar  off  send  up  their  peti- 
tions, and  wistfully  think  of  the  worshiping  congregation,  and  hear  in  thoir 
silence  the  songs  of  praise  and  the  voice  of  prayer — grant  that  to  them  tlie 
psalms  of  God,  winged,  may  fly  from  the  altar  of  the  sanctuary  to-day 
even  as  odors  are  wafted  from  a  garden  afar  off.  May  thy  blessing  fol- 
low them  every  whither.    Large  is  our  household  and  family  in  Christ 


96  WORKING  WITH  GOB. 

Jesus.  Some  are  on  the  sea.  There  are  some  in  every  land  around  the 
globe.  Grant  that  to-day  the  joys  of  our  home  service  may  reach  all  our 
wanderers  wherever  they  are  scattered  up  and  down  through  the  earth. 

Grant,  we  pray  thee,  if  there  are  those  in  thy  presence  who  are  bowed 
down  with  sorrow,  that  they  may  not  break  beneath  the  load  that  weighs 
thera  down.  May  the  wind  of  heaven  that  comes  to  shake  the  bough  over- 
laden with  rain  or  dew,  not  break  it  utterly.  Come  to  those  who  are 
weighed  down,  and  disburden  them  of  their  griefs,  and  teach  them  how 
little  a  thing  it  is  to  suffer  in  life,  if  they  but  have  in  them  the  hope  and 
pledge  of  immortality  and  joy  in  beaven. 

Be  with  those  who  sit  in  the  mouth  of  the  sepulcher.  May  they  tee  an- 
gels there  that  shall  say  to  them,  He  is  not  here — he  is  risen.  Grant  that 
all  those  who  have  sent  before  them  their  dear  ones  may  feel  that  they  have 
not  lost  them.  How  much  precious  seed  have  we  all  planted !  How  sweet 
and  precious  are  the  places  of  memory !  Oh,  give  us  the  Christian's  faith  and 
hope,  that  we  may  discern  beyond  the  planting,  and  see  what  is  the  resur- 
rection, the  joy  aud  the  glory  of  that  which  is  beyond. 

And  we  beseech  of  thee,  O  Lord  our  God,  that  thou  wilt  grant  to  those 
who  are  longing  for  strength,  the  pledge  of  thy  help  to-day.  If  there  are 
any  who  mourn  over  easily  besetting  sins,  who  are  so  filled  with  remorse 
that  they  cannot  look  up,  and  who  smite  on  their  breasts  saying.  Be  mer- 
ciful to  us  miserable  sinners,  be  merciful  to  them,  and  tell  them  of  thy 
sweet  intent ;  tell  them  how  gracious  God  is,  that  they  may  not  perish,  but 
have  strength  and  comfort  in  love. 

May  those  who  have  wandered  out  of  the  way  come  back  again  to  the 
Shepherd  and  Bishop  of  their  souls.  May  all  that  see  them  succor  them. 
And  granj;  that  while  we  pursue  the  way  of  truth  and  integrity,  and  seek 
to  buildup  justice  and  integrity  in  the  land,  we  may  still  not  forget  our 
brother.  May  we  never  forget  that  men  are  all  like  ourselves  sinners  be- 
fore God,  and  that  if  God  should  deal  as  unmercifully  with  us  as  we  do  with 
each  other  none  of  us  could  stand  for  an  hour.  While  we  seek  for  things 
that  are  true,  and  right,  and  pure,  and  just,  may  we  also  seek  for  the  things 
I'a^ta^e  merciful,  and  that  shall  restore  rather  than  destroy. 

And  v/e  pra3\  O  Lord,  that  thou  wilt  bless  thy  word  in  this  congregation, 
and  everywhere.  May  it  be  a  searching  word.  May  it  be  a  seed-bearing 
word.  May  it  be  a  word  bearmg  life  and  iight  and  perfume  to  everyone  to 
whom  it  is  preached.  We  beseech  of  thee  that  in  all  thy  churches  of  every 
name  thy  Gospel  may  have  great  power  to  do  the  work  for  which  it  is 
appointed. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  more  and  more  unite  thy  people.  Teach  them 
to  bear  more  with  each  other.  May  offenses  cease.  Grant  that  there  may 
be  more  and  more  unity  inwardly  and  spiritually.  Grant,  we  pray  thee, 
that  all  throughout  our  land  who  labor  for  the  promotion  of  morality,  may 
be  blessed  of  God.  May  intelligence  spread.  May  schools  and  academies 
and  colleges  be  blessed  of  God,  puritied  and  sanctified.  And  may  there  be 
raised  up  in  our  land  a  generation  to  serve  God.  And  at  last  may  there  be 
a  nation  that  shall  dwell  in  righteousness.  May  there  be  a  nation  whose 
eyes  shall  not  be  red  with  blood  or  fierce  with  destruction,  but  full  of  pity 
and  compassion.  Speak  by  the  voice  of  this  whole  people;  and  may  they 
be  witnesses,  not  only  of  liberty  but  of  the  power  of  godliness,  which  alone 
can  give  true  liberty. 

Let  thy  kingdom  come.  Let  thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  done  in 
heaven.  And  to  thy  name,  Father,  Sun,  and  Holy  Spirit,  shall  be  ascribed 
everlasting  praise.    Amen, 


VI. 

Lessons  from  the  Great  Chicago 

Fire. 


INVOCATION. 

Our  Father,  wilt  thou  reach  forth  out  of  the  invisible  by  thy  power !  We 
cannot  ask  thee  to  meet  our  senses ;  but  that  inward  life  which  thou  hast 
planted — this  thou  canst  instruct  and  inspire.  Brinj?  that  of  us  which  vmder- 
stands  thee  into  life  and  light  this  morning ;  and  grant  that  we  may  feel  that 
we  are  not  left  alone  to  wander  by  chance  or  in  orphanage.  May  we  feel 
that  we  have  a  Father  whose  love  transcends  all  power  of  conception ;  and 
that  ovir  Father  is  not  subjected  as  we  are  to  time  and  chance,  but  is  high 
above  all  things,  himself  the  source  of  universal  power  and  life.  O  let  us, 
this  day,  rise  into  the  conception  of  the  riches  which  we  have  in  thee,  and 
may  all  our  sense  of  discouragement  be  rebuked.  May  all  the  impalpable- 
ness  of  our  thought  pass  away,  and  may  we  discern,  inwardly,  how  much 
above  us  is  the  scope  of  thy  glory,  and  how  full  is  thy  power,  and  how 
transcendent  is  thy  love,  and  how  blessed  it  is  to  us.  So  gather  us,  this 
morning,  into  the  spirit  of  our  Lord  that  our  thoughts  may  fly  upward,  and 
our  affections  follow,  that  we  may  rejoice  in  thee  this  day,  and  be  prepared 
for  all  the  services  of  the  week.  We  ask  it  in  the  name  of  the  Beloved. 
Amen. 


LESSONS 

FROM  THE 

GREAT  CHICAGO  FIRE. 


"  Thy  judgments  are  a  great  deep."— Psa.  XXXVI.  6. 


No  wonder  that  the  Hebrew  found  in  the  ocean  a  symbol 
of  divine  providence.  The  beauty  of  its  gentler  moods  wins  us  as  if 
the  sea  had  in  it  only  kindness.  The  storm  bursts  out  ;  and  the 
horrible  conflict,  the  noise,  the  darkness,  and  the  cruel  power,  over- 
whelm the  imagination  as  if  the  ocean  had  in  it  only  fate  and  tor- 
ment. But  it  is  the  same  ocean  in  the  height  of  its  rage,  that  it  was 
in  its  tranquil  moods.  It  has  not  broken  away  from  law.  It  moves 
obediently  to  everlasting  laws,  as  much  when  it  dashes  fleets  to 
pieces  or  drowns  thousands  of  men,  as  when  it  opens  its  bosom 
to  feed  nations,  or  becomes  the  common  carrier  of  commerce  around 
about  the  globe.  God's  providences  are  a  great  deep.  When  they 
smile,  they  seem  to  us  indeed  the  providences  of  a  loving  God ;  but 
when  they  bring  a  reign  of  misfortune  and  unmingled  sufierino-, 
sometimes  they  seem  demoniac  providences.  Joy  and  gladness  seem 
to  us  rational,  normal,  explicable ;  but  disaster  we  instinctively  feel 
is  unregulated  action,  and  mysterious  and  bewildering. 

We  believe  in  divine  and  special  providence,  not  as  something 
separated  from  law,  but  as  a  mode  of  administering  law.  The  whole 
system  of  laws  under  which  the  human  race  lives,  is  overruled  and 
administered  by  God  so  that  the  great  ends  of  human  existence  are 
served. 

Natural  laws  were  framed  to  work  toward  benefit ;  and  it 
is  strictly  philosophical  to  say,  "  All  things  shall  work  together  for 
good  to  them  that  love  God."  But  the  common  mistake  lies  in  sup- 
posing that  we  can  guess,  in  each  particular  event,  what  the  divine 
intent  was.  It  is  not  diflicult  to  announce  the  general  proposition 
that  all  things  on  earth  will,  in  the  economy  of  law,  and  supervised 

Sunday  Morning,  Oct.  15,  1871.     Lesson  :  Joel.  I.     Hymns  (Plymouth  Collec- 
tion): Nos.  173,  93,  lOU. 


100  LESSOI^S  FROM.  THE 

by  a  sjsecial  intelligent  providence,  tend  to  restrain  evil,  and  to  pro- 
mote good.  The  general  tendency  men  accept.  The  mistake  lies  iu 
attempting  to  carry  into  specifics  that  which  we  may  accept  only 
generically.  » 

The  interpretations  of  providence  are  mostly  the  reasons  of 
men's  skepticism  about  providence.  In  a  general  sense,  evil  befalls 
men  by  reason  of  their  sins — that  is,  by  reason  of  violations  of  law 
which  bring  penalties.  In  a  general  sense,  obedience  to  goodness 
brings  appreciable  benefit.  But  it  is  not  wise,  it  is  not  practicable, 
to  analyze  one's  life,  and  to  determine  that  this  or  that  special 
experience  has  come  by  reason  of  this  or  that  act,  or  that  it  is  sent 
for  this  or  that  special  end  in  the  future.  The  benefits  which  accrue 
to  us  are  not  on  account  of  any  special  virtue;  nor  are  the  judg- 
ments and  disasters  which  follow  particular  sins  to  be  reckoned  as 
specially  aimed  at  those  sins.  Sometimes  the  connection  between 
one's  actions  and  his  sins  is  very  plain.  We  see  that  good  does  fol- 
low right  conduct  immediately,  so  that  they  are  cause  andefiect; 
and  we  perceive  that  evil  does  follow  wrong  conduct,  so  that  they 
are  cause  and  efiect.  This  is  the  case  where  drinking  produces  in- 
temperance. There,  causes  work,  and  produce,  directly  or  indirectly, 
evil  efiects — evil  dispositions,  and  a  whole  train  of  mischiefs. 

But  Avhen  we  attempt  to  apply  this  to  whole  communities,  the 
problems  are  so  complex  that  we  lose  the  clue,  and  can  no  longer 
follow  in  this  specializing  process.  We  believe,  in  a  general  way, 
that  all  the  laws  under  Avhicli  we  live,  and  to  which  we  yield  an 
approximate  obedience,  inure  to  benefit.  But  they  are  so  many,  so 
subtle,  and  so  interplied,  woven,  braided  together,  that  we  are  un- 
able to  say  where  we  broke  or  where  we  kept  laws.  We  blot  out 
the  details. 

We  start  on  a  a  wrong  line,  therefore,  when  we  inquire  in  regard 
to  great  histories,  like  the  war,  for  instance,  between  Austria  and 
Germany,  or  like  the  Franco-Germanic  War,  and  say,  "  Why  did 
God  allow  such  tremendous  evils  ?"  To  attempt  to  trace  this  or  that 
particulai-,  except  in  a  limited  and  guarded  way,  is  not  philosophic. 
It  transcends  human  power. 

But  it  is  fair  and  wise  in  all  cases  of  providence — that  is,  in  all 
great  happenings — though  we  may  not  be  able  to  ascertain  the 
philosophy  of  them,  or  what  the  divine  intent  was,  except  in  a  very 
general  Avay — it  is  wise,  in  all  such  cases,  to  ask,  "  Since  such  things 
have  happened,  what  lessons  of  wisdom  may  we  deduce  from  them  '?" 
It  is  wise  to  ask,  not  so  much,  "  Why,  particularly,  were  they  sent ;'' 
as  "  What  shall  I  do  with  them,  now  that  they  have  come  ?"  That 
is  practicable.     That  belongs  to   our  sphere.     We  may   not  say, 


QEBAT  CHICAGO  FIRE.  10 1 

"  Why  did  God  bring  so  good  a  man  to  bankruptcy  ?"  but  when 
bankruptcy  has  come  to  a  man  who  is  so  good,  he  may  very  wisely 
Bay,  "  What  now,  since  I  am  a  bankrupt,  is  that  which  is  becoming 
in  me  as  a  man  and  a  Christian  ?  How  shall  I  turn  to  good  that 
which  is  exteriorly  bad  ?"  That  is  a  wise  way  of  dealing  with 
providence.  In  short,  it  may  be  presumed  that  the  divine  thought 
moves  in  so  large  a  sphere,  includes  in  its  range  such  immeasurable 
and  innumerable  elements,  that  to  a  lower  mind  it  must  needs  be 
complex  at  all  times,  and  at  some  times  utterly  unintelligible.  It  is 
impossible  to  interpret  beforehand  what  were  God's  intentions  ;  and 
the  greatest  wisdom  is  rather  to  interpret,  as  far  as  possible,  from 
things  that  have  happened,  what  is  the  line  of  particular  duties. 

There  is  much  sympathy  between  lower  animals  and  those  that 
are  higher.  The  most  intelligent  of  animals,  I  take  it,  is  the  dog. 
He  is  the  nearest  to  man.  He  is  most  in  sympathy  with  him.  He 
comes  nearest  to  talking  and  to  laughing.  If  some  dogs  do  not 
want  to  laugh,  then  there  is  no  truth  in  signs ;  and  if  some  dogs  do 
not  try  to  talk,  then  there  is  no  use  of  interpreting  anything.  How 
quickly  they  know  whether  you  are  angry  or  not  angry,  pleased  or 
not  pleased  !  How  soon  they  know  what  is  passing  in  your  mind, 
in  a  general  way  !  And  they  come  to  you,  they  go  away  from  you, 
or  they  sit  aloof  from  you,  they  demean  themselves,  according  to 
the  signs  which  they  read  in  your  face,  and  in  your  general  conduct. 
No  other  animal  but  the  dog  can  do  that.  Yet  anything  beyond 
that  is  utterlyilost  to  him.  How  soon  the  clue  is  gone  !  How  little 
can  a  dog  understand  more  than  just  what  your  present  feeling  is 
toward  him !  Suppose  he  should  believe  that  you  were  his  God, 
and  had  a  providence,  and  should  attempt  to  have  a  theory  of  that 
providence,  how  long  and  how  far  do  you  think  he  could  follow  your 
thoughts  ? 

Yet  more  pertinent,  the  child  attempts  to  interpret  the  father. 
A  very  little  way,  and  only  a  very  little  way,  the  child's  mind  can 
go.  Beyond  that  the  father's  mind  travels  on  and  on,  and  the  child 
is  utterly  helpless,  and  can  only  say,  "  I  trust  my  father,  but  I  do 
not  understand  him."  We  can  trust  God,  but  we  cannot  understand 
him.  Not  because  he  has  wrapped  himself  in  mystery ;  not  because 
there  is  anything  mysterious  in  the  divine  procedure  in  the  ordinary 
understanding  of  that  term  mysterious;  but  simply  because  it  is 
impossible  for  a  lower  formation  to  understand  a  higher  one.  Our 
minds  were  not  meant  to  measure  that  sphere  in  which  God  dwells, 
and  the  scale  of  conduct  in  which  he  acts. 

This,  substantially,  was  the  old  Hebrew  feeling.     The  Hebrews 
accepted  God's  government;  they  believed  in  it  as  a  factj  they 


102  LUSSONS  FROM  THE 

pronounced  it  mysterious,  but  wound  up  by  saying,  "  God  is  good. 
Clouds  and  darkness  are  around  about  his  throne;  but  justice  and 
judgment  are  the  habitations  thereof.''  And  there  they  left  it. 
There  everybody  else  has  had  to  leave  it  from  that  day  to  this ;  and 
there  I  suppose  everybody  will  have  to  leave  it  from  this  day  to 
the  end  of  the  world.  We  are  not  big  enough  to  philosophize  about 
God  as  a  providence. 

He  must  be  bold  indeed,  therefore,  who  shall  undertake  to  an- 
swer all  the  questions  which  must  arise  on  the  contemplation  of  that 
ofreat  disaster,  or  series  of  disasters,  which  has  afflicted  the  North- 
west.  This  destruction  of  a  city  utterly  and  almost  instantaneously, 
is  a  kind  of  anachronism  in  history.  It  is  the  parallel  of  other  great 
disasters  which  have  been  inflicted  on  cities  and  nations.  It  is  like 
another  Herculaneum  or  Pompeii,  or  the  Apocalyptic  vision  of  a 
mountain  of  fire  cast  into  a  sea  of  blood,  it  came  so  suddenly,  so 
unpreparedly,  and  to5k  us  so  unawares,  astounding  us,  rather  than  in- 
terpreting itself  to  us.  And  we  shall  not  dare  to  enter  upon  the  in- 
terior of  this  disaster,  and  arrest  Providence  with  this  writ,  "  Why 
hast  thou  done  this  ?"  Why  should  such  a  scene  of  suffering  befall 
that  city  rather  than  another  ?  Why  should  the  good  and  the  bad 
Bufler  in  common  ?  Why  should  the  frugal,  the  industrious,  the 
skillful,  who  had  organized  law  into  wealth,  and  built  up  society, 
and  done  more  to  elevate  the  masses  than  any  others,  more  heavily 
suffer  than  the  thriftless,  the  idle  and  the  vicious,  who  have  nothing 
now,  and  Avho  had  nothing  before  ?  The  poorer  a  m*n  was,  the  less 
he  suffered.  The  richer  a  man  was,  the  wiser  he  was,  the  more  vir- 
tuous he  was,  the  more  sensitive  he  was,  the  more  he  was  spread 
abroad  in  wholesome  prosperity, — the  more  scope  was  there  for  the 
bolt  and  the  levin  blast.  Why  should  the  innocent  and  the  help- 
less, why  should  the  gentle  and  brave  women,  why  should  the  poor, 
clinging,  little  children,  be  chased  toward  the  darkness  at  midnight 
by  the  pursuit  of  devouring  flames  ?  Why  should  tlie  young  wife 
who  was  just  opening  the  door  of  life  to  her  first-born  be  burned 
up  with  her  child  ?  And  why  was  not  the  lover  and  husband  burned 
too  ?     Since  she  must  go,  why  not  both  ? 

That  jails  should  burn  with  vicious  criminals,  may  not  seem 
strange ;  but  why  should  hospitals,  with  their  precious  burden  of 
the  sick  and  the  poor,  be  burned  ?  Why  should  dwelling-houses, 
with  venerable  age  and  helpless  youth,  be  treated  just  as  if  they 
were  the  haunts  of  infamy  ?  God's  judgments  are  a  great  deep ; 
and  he  who  undertakes  to  pursue  God's  footsteps  with  inquisition, 
asking  in  each  instance,  "  Why  is  this  ?"  and  "  Why  is  this  ?"  wUl 
soon  find  himself  driven  out  on  that  deep.     For  there  is  no  chart 


GBUAT  CHICAGO  FIBE.  103 

and  no  compass  that  can  steer  him  across  it. 

Such  thoughts  bewilder  the  brain  and  sour  the  hea't.  They 
are  unwholesome.  They  are  neither  pious  nor  manly.  They  aro 
not  philosophic.  Turn  away  from  them.  Turn  from  contemplating 
the  case  of  the  young  man  who,  after  incredible  self-denial  and  toil, 
had  just  put  his  foot  on  firm  foundations,  and  now  in  an  hour  finds 
himself  cast  out  on  the  same  level  with  the  dissipated  fellow  who 
lived  a  parasitic  life  in  society ;  turn  from  the  contemplation  of 
innumerable  such  cases ;  let  them  go  their  way.  If  you  pursue  them, 
that  way  lies  atheism.  Those  things  will  not  bear  looking  at  in 
that  way.  Refuse  to  weave  darkness.  Are  there  no  lessons  of  light  ? 
Are  there  no  inquisitions  that  will  bring  some  degree  of  confidence 
in  providence,  trust  in  God,  and  rest  toward  men  ?  Yes,  a  great 
many. 

It  is  not  for  me,  therefore,  to  dissect,  to-day,  and  lay  open,  the 
horrors  of  that  occasion.  Enough  we  have  sufiered  in  dwelling  upon 
them.  Our  eye  is  weary  with  tears.  Our  heart  is  tired  with  sym- 
pathy in  distress.  Let  us  comfort  ourselves,  and  find,  if  we  can, 
that  wherein  we  may  rest. 

This  great  national  disaster  is  a  revelation  of  the  structure  and 
function  of  cities  in  the  organization  of  society.  GeograjDhically, 
cities  are  distinct  from  the  country  at  large ;  but  they  are  organic 
parts  of  it,  and  are  of  transcendent  importance.  Morally,  socially, 
■  and  industrially,  they  are  the  supreme  heads  of  the  outlying  country. 
They  are  the  j)oint  at  which  the  whole  region  round  about  expresses 
itself.  Chicago  is  blotted  out ;  but  every  city,  and  every  town,  and 
every  village,  and  almost  every  family  in  the  United  States,  feels 
the  flash  of  that  flame.  What  was  Chicago  ?  Not  what  it  was  in  it- 
self. Its  secret  threads,  its  nerve-filaments,  ran  out  to  the  imme- 
diate neighborhood,  to  contiguous  cities,  to  every  state,  to  every  part 
of  the  land,  and  to  the  whole  world.  There  is  scarcely  a  nation  on 
the  globe  that  has  not  some  of  the  roots  of  Chicago  in  it.  It  was 
not  isolated.  As  no  man  stands  alone,  but  is  what  he  is  by  virtue  of 
ages  going  far  back  in  the  past ;  as  no  man  stands  alone,  but  trans- 
mits himself,  reaching  out,  good  and  bad,  through  the  coming  time ; 
as  no  man  stands  alone,  but  stretches  his  branches  out  wide  over 
others,  so,  less,  can  a  whole  community  of  men  stand  alone,  with 
complex  industries,  with  all  that  is  bred,  and  cultured,  and  wise,  and 
keen,  and  intensely  alive.  It  takes  possession  of  the  whole  world. 
And  every  great  city  belongs  as  really  to  the  whole  world  as  to  any 
part  of  it. 

A  great  tree  stands  near  our  dwelling.     It  belongs  to  the  imme- 
diate dwelling.     It  covers  a  hundred  feet  square  of  ground.     Trace 


104  LUSSONS  FROM  TEE 

its  roots.  They  far  outrun  the  spread  of  its  branches.  They  plunge 
deep  out  of  sight.  They  run  along  beneath  the  surface  of  walls, 
and  seek  richer  soil.  They  follow  the  scent  of  water,  and  may  be 
found  drinking  at  a  far-oiF  brook.  They  go  after  the  chemical  rich- 
ness in  sewers,  and  nestle  in  other  spots  where  those  elements  which 
make  a  better  soil  have  accumulated.  They  fill  the  whole  meadow 
full.  And  if  you  trace  them  to  their  uttermost  bounds,  they  are 
very  many  times  wider-spread  than  the  branches. 

So,  if  you  trace  out  the  life  of  a  single  city ;  if  you  follow  to 
their  termination  all  its  sensitive  nerves,  it  is  not  a  separate  thing. 
More  is  it  to  a  nation,  or  to  the  world,  like  the  head  of  the  body. 
When  one  is  in  health  he  does  not  know  that  he  has  a  nerve.  He 
does  not  know  that  he  has  a  drop  of  blood.  He  never  feels  either 
the  one  or  the  other.  But  just  touch  the  brain,  touch  the  heart,  and 
they  will  reveal  instantly  the  complexity  of  the  organization.  And 
there  is  no  single  part  of  the  human  system,  from  the  crown  of  the 
head  to  the  sole  of  the  foot,  that  is  not  sensitive,  because  there  is 
connected  with  the  brain  a  nerve  that  ramifies  there.  Cities  are  the 
heads  of  the  country.  They  are  nerve-plexuses,  vital  congeries. 
They  always  follow  civilization.  As  they  produce  it,  they  are  pro- 
duced by  it.  Civilization  tends  to  globe  itself  up  in  such  ways. 
And  the  prosperity  of  cities,  their  power,  their  moral  wholesome- 
ness,  and  their  purity,  are  of  transcendent  importance. 

Behold  the  instantaneous  efiects  of  the  prostration  of  a  single  city 
in  our  land.  See  what  a  revelation  is  made  of  the  importance  of  cities 
in  the  nation.  Because  St.  Louis  is  so  far  from  New  York,  she  is  not 
any  the  less  a  part  of  New  York.  Because  San  Francisco  is  so  far  be- 
yond St.  Louis,  it  does  not  follow  that  she  does  not  belong  vitally  to 
the  whole  country.  Shall  the  nerve  in  the  cheek  say  to  the  nerve  in 
the  foot,  "  You  are  so  far  down  that  you  do  not  belong  to  me  "?  Why, 
the  nerves  all  belong  to  each  other  throughout  the  body.  And  every 
city  in  the  whole  land  belongs  to  the  whole  land,  and  to  every  other 
city  in  the  land ;  and  the  whole  land  is  an  organic  unity.  It  is  right 
and  noble  to  spread  over  the  globe  commerce  and  wealth  ;  but  it  is 
of  more  importance  that  New  York  should  be  a  truly  civilized  and 
well-governed  city,  than  that  commerce  and  civilization  and  the  or- 
dinary forms  of  the  Gospel  itself  should  be  spread  over  the  whole 
continent  of  Asia  or  Africa.  A  city  is,  for  the  time  being,  that  point 
where  God  enthrones  himself  in  wisdom  and  in  power.  Our  cities 
are  so  many  seats  of  God — though  we  might  not  suspect  it  by  the 
fruits  which  they  bring  forth.  They  are  the  places  of  power.  They 
are  the  centers  where,  if  anywhere,  the  voice  of  the  people  is  the 
voice  of  God.     You  can  tell  which  God  it  is  by  what  the  voice  of 


GBJ^AT  CHICAGO  FIBE.  105 

the  people  is — whether  it  be  a  demoniac  God,  or  Jehovah,  the  God 
of  justice  and  purity.  Cities  being  thrones  of  power,  their  wel- 
fare cannot  be  too  profoundly  pondered,  nor  too  anxiously  sought. 

No  man  who  is  a  patriot,  and  who  means  to  give  his  life  for  his 
country,  can  afford  to  be  on  the  wrong  side  on  the  subject  of  the 
cleansing  of  our  great  cities,  and  of  obliging  them  to  express  the 
best  thoughts  of  this  later  period  of  the  world.  Our  civilization  is 
expressed  to  the  world  by  the  civilization  of  our  cities.  And  it  is  a 
good  thing  that  at  last  we  have  an  illustration  of  the  vital  relations 
of  cities,  if  it  quickens  our  idea  of  our  duties  respecting  them,  and 
enlarges  our  idea  of  their  functions  in  this  great  land.  For  America 
perhaps  above  all  other  countries,  is  the  land  of  cities.  Freedom, 
intelligence,  order,  and  thrift,  always  develop  in  that  direction. 
There  are  more  cities  in  Massachusetts  than  there  are  south  of  Ma- 
son's and  Dixon's  line,  in  the  fifteen  States  there.  Introduce  a  low 
form  of  political  economy,  and  there  will  be  a  barbarian  form  of 
morals — an  old  Oriental  form  of  despotism,  such  as  might  have  been 
in  vogue  as  far  back  as  when  monkey  ceased  and  man  began — 
,  if  such  a  time  there  ever  was.  Introduce  antiquated  economies,  and 
cities  will  be  few  and  far  between,  and  abnormal,  for  the  most 
part,  but  introduce  the  great  civilizing  and  refining  influences 
which  peculiarly  distinguish  Christianity,  and  one  of  the  invariable 
results  will  be  the  multiplication  of  great  communities. 

Men  talk  to  you  about  the  great  mischief  which  arises  from  young 
men  leaving  the  country  for  the  city,  I  know  that  a  great  deal 
of  mischief  arises  from  this  cause.  And  yet,  talking  against  it  is 
like  talking  against  the  Svind.  You  might  as  well  read  a  lesson  as 
to  the  propriety  of  the  Gulf  Stream  rolling  up  and  warming  England 
and  leaving  Greenland  untouched.  It  does  so,  and  it  will  do  so. 
Cities  will  grow  and  increase  in  population  ;  and  it  is  for  us  to  un- 
derstand that  effect  and  take  heed  to  it,  so  that  cities  shall  be  the 
legitimate  expressions  of  the  best  part  of  our  civilization.  No  man 
is  a  good  citizen,  no  man  is  a  good  patriot,  no  man  is  a  good  Chris- 
tian, who  does  not  care  what  becomes  of  the  cities,  so  that  his 
business  thrives,  and  his  family  is  happy.  It  is  treason  to  the  flao-, 
and  it  is  treason'to  that  God  who  made  the  flag. 

Again,  the  spectacle  of  heroic  conduct  which  we  have  presented 
in  all  forms  in  this  panorama  of  fire,  gives  to  the  world,  I  think, 
to-day,  a  benefit  which  is  greater  than  all  the  loss  of  ruined  riches. 
We  mourn  and  wonder  at  this  disaster ;  but  I  tell  you,  when  you 
strike  the  balance  on  every  side,  you  shall  find  that  it  has  not  been 
a  disaster.  We  are  richer  to-day  with  Chicago  burned,  than  we 
were  last  month  with  Chicago  unburned.     Not  to  say  hoiv  many 


106  J.ESS0N8  FROM  TEE 

good  things  have  been  burned  up,  a  great  many  things  have  been 
burned  that  ought  to  have  been  burned.  Not  to  say  how  many 
valuable  things  are  gone,  a  great  many  things  are  gone  which  were 
•worse  than  valueless. 

Brethren,  the  tiger  and  the  wolf  and  the  serpent  lie  low  in  the 
base  of  the  human  brain.  Civilization  and  true  Christianity  tame 
them,  and  keep  them  down ;  but  where  they  are  not  tamed  and  kept 
down,  on  occasion  they  break  out  with  impunity  in  such  hideous 
forms  that  the  beasts  of  the  wilderness  might  well  be  ashamed  to 
see  how  they  are  surpassed  in  horrid  cruelty  by  bad  men.  I  can- 
not conceive  of  anything  so  hideous  as  the  stories  which  come  to  us 
of  the  rapine  and  cruelty  and  lust  which  appeared  during  the  un- 
speakable suffering  caused  by  that  calamity,  when  it  seemed  as  . 
though  God  sat  on  his  throne  only  to  make  misery.  That  in  such 
an  hour  as  that  men  should  be  only  turned  into  fiends,  that  they 
should  assault,  despoil,  and  destroy,  seems  incredible.  Far  be  it 
from  me  to  say  that  all  men  are  so  depraved.  I  know  they  are  not. 
Far  be  it  from  me  to  say  that  all  men  would  become  so  depraved 
under  certain  circumstances.  I  know  they  Avould  not.  But  there  is 
in  every  one  some  tendency  to  evil.  There  is  in  every  one,  lying  in 
their  lair,  the  bear  and  the  tiger.  The  wickedness  of  man  knows 
no  bounds ;  and  if  it  were  unrestrained  by  laws,  and  it  had  the 
opportunity,  it  would  leap  out  and  be  as  cruel  as  the  fires  that  deso- 
lated the  city  of  Chicago. 

But,  comparatively  speaking,  such  monsters  were  few.  The  vast 
majority  of  the  men,  women,  and  children  there,  presented  other 
aspects.  Over  against  this  picture,  like  a  rainbow  upon  a  storm- 
cloud,  hangs  an  example  of  heroic  bravery.  How  many  instances 
there  were  of  singular  disinterestedness  !  Oh,  that  there  might  have 
been  a  diamond  pen  to  catch  up  the  sweet  thoughts  of  self-forgetful- 
ness,  and  of  noble  preference  one  toward  another !  How  many  men 
that  in  their  ordinary  lives  had  esteemed  their  own  good  better  than 
that  of  others,  learned  to  esteem  the  good  of  others  better  than  their 
own  !  How  many  dropped  the  material  treasures  which  they  were 
bearing  to  places  of  safety,  for  the  sake  of  saving  human  life  !  How 
many  mothers  joyfully  suffered  that  their  children  might  not  sufier  ! 
How  many  men  turned  with  tears  of  gratitude,  saying  to  God,  "  I 
thank  thee,  O  Lord,  that  my  wife  and  children  are  yet  saved  to  me," 
though  they  lost  everything  else  that  they  possessed  !  In  the  midst 
,oi  that  great  whirl  and  tornado  of  fire,  what  glorious  instances, 
what  magnificent  exhibitions,  what  heroic  achievements,  were  seen ! 
There  were  more  than  we  know ;  but  not  more  than  angels  know. 
There  was  a  blessed  harvest  of  good,  as  well  as  a  hideous  harvest 


GEE  AT  CHICAGO  FIBK  107 

ol  evil,  whicli  resulted  from  {his  disaster.  How  many  men  there 
were  who  seemed  to  be  drudges  all  their  life,  intensely  addicted  to 
money,  and  even  close-handed  and  sharp,  but  who,  under  this  trial 
of  fire,  were  saved,  so  as  by  fire,  and  burst  up  into  their  better  self! 
How  glorious  a  spectacle,  also,  is  presented,  of  the  reinvigoror- 
tion  of  enterprise — of  the  rekindling  of  hope.  Men  are  digging 
through  the  fire,  to-day,  to  lay  hot  foundations.  There  may  be  des- 
pair in  individual  instances ;  but  hope  is  the  characteristic  of  that 
community.  Manhood  rises  triumphant  in  Chicago  to-day.  Not 
that  I  think  that  the  best  things  for  a  city  are  restored  pavements, 
and  re-ei-ected  warehouses,  and  nobler'  and  better  built  granaries  ; 
not  that  I  think  that  houses,  and  shops,  and  offices,  and  stores,  ai'e 
the  best  crop  ;  but  I  think  that  when  men  who  were  rich  and  strong, 
finding  themselves  poor  as  poverty  itself,  rose  elated,  and  began  to 
build  again,  the  manhood  which  they  manifested  was  better  than  the 
streets,  though  paved  with  gold,  and  all  the  warehouses,  though 
filled  with  diamonds.  And  the  spectacle  of  manhood  which  is  thus 
being  presented,  is  making  the  whole  nation  richer. 

When  Farragut  drove  past  hidden  and  obvious  dangers,  up  the 
bay  into  the  port  of  Mobile,  the  example  of  heroic  manhood  which 
he  exhibited  was  a  treasure  to  the  human  race  which  no  man  can 
measure.  It  lifted  up  before  the  eyes  of  men  a  higher  ideal  of 
heroism  and  self  consecration  to  duty.  And  where  a  whole  com- 
munity of  men,  who  have  been  known  as  headlong  in  enterprise,  as 
almost  reckless  in  speculation,  were  visited  by  this  sweeping  judg- 
ment, which  paralyzed  and  bewildei-ed  those  even  a  thousand  miles 
distant  who  looked  upon  it,  stand  up  again  after  this  raging  fire, 
brave  and  strong,  their  exhibition  of  manhood  is  incalculable  in  its 
benefit  to  the  whole  human  family.  It  is  a  treasure  to  Asia,  and 
may  awake  even  her  sluggish  life.  It  is  a  treasure  to  Europe.  It  is 
a  treasure  wherever  men  care  for  and  think  about  men.  And  tens 
of  thousands  of  youth  will  be  more  than  they  would  have  been  if 
it  were  not  for  this  heroism.  Men  in  ranks,  by  hundreds,  comtnuni- 
ties  of  men,  will  be  nobler  and  more  courageous  for  having  beheld 
such  a  spectacle.  Burn,  buildings  !  go  down,  churches  !  that  we"  may 
see  what  lies  beyond  you.  What  the  church  has  bred,  and  what 
the  family  has  nourished,  we  see  when  the  church  is  gone  and  the 
house  has  perished,  and  nothing  is  left  but  the  men  that  have  been 
made  in  them. 

The  conduct  of  the  xohole  nation  at  this  time  of  the  special 
trouble  of  Chicago,  is  also  full  of  moral  riches.  (By  and  by  you 
will  think  I  see  so  much  profit  in  the  burning  of  Chicago  that 
another  city  had  better  be  bui-ned  !  but  no,  we  will  leave  that  to 
the  inscrutable  providence  of  God.)     For  one,  I  am  deterniined  not 


108  l:essons  from  teE' 

to  look  over  the  ruins  of  Chicago  and  shed  any  more  tears,  nor  to 
whine,  but  to  particijjate  in  the  valorous  spirit  of  the  citizens  there, 
and  see  what  there  is  that  is  good.  They  will  rake  in  the  ashes  and 
find  more  treasure  than  many  and  many  a  man  found  before,  I  see 
a  great  national  blessing  in  this  event.  Before  the  fire  was  quenched 
trains  loaded  with  provisions  bore  relief  to  to  the  sufferers.  No 
man  went  more  than  twelve  hours  hungry.  Two  hundred  thousand 
men  waked  after  the  fire  not  knowing  where  to  get  a  loaf,  and  not 
one  perished.  Soon  all  needed  provision  was  at  hand.  All  the 
ovens  of  Ohio  were  brought  into  requisition.  All  the  granaries  of 
the  West,  and  all  the  wardrobes  of  the  East,  were  thrown  open. 
Every  man  said  in  his  heart,  "  This  is  my  trouble"  ;  and  every  man 
sent  from  the  children's  little  stock,  and  from  his  own  and  his  wife's 
wardrobe ;  and  selfishness  itself  grew  benevolent ;  and  sympathy 
converted  itself  into  succor.  Night  and  day,  fire  and  steam  did  the 
work  of  humanity,  and  are  doing  it.  There  never  was  a  sublimer 
spectacle  than  the  scope  and  organization  and  instantaneousness  of 
the  movements  for  supplying  the  wants  of  the  sufferers  at  Chicago. 
The  nation  said,  "  She  is  our  city,  and  it  is  our  business  to  succor 
her."  A  mother  hardly  turns  more  suddenly  at  the  cry  of  her 
child  with  pain,  than  Chicago  was  succored  when  she  cried  out  la 
her  distress,  by  the  mother-bosom  and  the  mother-arm  of  the  nation. 
And  it  is  a  good  thing.  It  is  worth  all  the  money  that  has  been 
lost  to  see  the  nation,  with  outbi'eaking  sympathy,  thus  taking  care 
of  its  suffering  ones.  The  exhibition  is  glorious.  Not  undervaluing 
creeds,  I  believe  that  they  might  spread  all  over  the  world  and  not 
cany  a  true  religion  with  them.  I  believe  that  there  might  be  a 
church  on  every  square  mile  of  the  globe,  and  Christ  not  be  known. 
The  evidence  that  Christianity  is  spreading,  is  that  there  is  a  self- 
denying,  disinterested  love.  And  how  has  it  shown  itself  in  this 
outburst  of  generous  feeling  !  We  have  been  preaching,  and  preach- 
ing and  preaching  the  brotherhood  of  man  ;  and  I  hope  some  good 
has  been  done.  We  have  been  laboring  and  laboring  to  efface  the 
dividing  walls  which  lie  between  sects  in  general ;  we  have  been 
striving  to  harmonize  the  community  so  that  they  should  feel  that 
they  were  members  one  of  another  in  all  their  interests ;  and  I  hope 
with  some  success.  But  this  marvel  which  men  call  a  disaster  has 
been  wrought,  this  pillar  of  fire  which  leads  the  nation  in  darkness 
has  been  kindled  by  the  hand  of  God ;  and  what  do  we  see  to-day  ? 
The  churches  and  the  theaters  are  both  on  the  same  errand ;  they 
are  both  doing  the  same  thing ;  they  are  both  working  for  the  same 
object — the  relief  of  those  who  are  suffering.  God  bless  the  thea- 
ters as  long  as  they  do  such  work,  and  only  such  work  as  that !  I 
will  not  apply  it  all  through ;  but  we  will  not  look  too  closely.    We 


GBEA  T  CHIC  A  GO  FIBE.  109 

will  take  what  we  can  get  that  is  good.  The  Catholic  and  the 
Protestant  have  forgotten  the  Council  of  Trent,  and  before  and 
after;  and  every  man  feels  that  he  is  more  than  a  Catholic  or  a  Prot- 
estant. He  is  a  man.  And  all  stand  in  the  higher  sphere  of  man- 
hood to-day. 

I  see  stores  vicing  with  each  other  in  this  good  work.  Banks, 
that  are  corporations,  which  are  said  to  have  no  souls,  have  some- 
thing that  looks  very  much  like  a  soul.  Insurance  companies  that 
are  not  obliged  to  pay  too  heavily,  because  they  have  been  mulcted 
in  insurance,  are  stepping  forward  with  their  thousands  or  tens  of 
thousands  of  dollars  to  relieve  the  wants  of  the  sufferers.  The  whole 
organization  of  society  seems  to  be  inspired  with  the  blood  of  true 
Christian  charity.  The  hand,  the  foot,  every  particle  of  the  corpor- 
ate body,  is  thinking  how  to  help  and  how  to  give.  There  is  many 
a  man  in  New  York  who  will  give  more  than  he  can  alFord,  there 
are  many  who  will  pinch  themselves  of  the  luxuries  of  life  all  winter, 
for  the  sake  of  helping  those  whom  they  never  have  seen,  and  whom 
they  never  will  see.  They  have  said  "  Good-by"  to  their  money, 
and  they  have  seen  the  last  of  it.  And  is  it  not  worth  while  to  have 
had  such  a  disastei-,  that  we  might  be  brought  together,  not  by  the 
insane  fury  of  war,  not  by  the  selfish  zeal  which  inspires  parties  in 
great  political  contests,  not  by  those  influences  which  come  with 
commerce,  but  by  the  highest  and  sublimest  manifestation — even  by 
that  which  brought  the  Son  of  God  from  heaven  to  earth,  that  he 
might  pour  the  abundance  of  his  riches  upon  our  poverty,  and 
that  he  might  make  us  what  he  is,  by  lifting  us  up  into  his  righteous- 
ness. All  the  nation,  in  this  way,  blindly,  imperfectly,  but  willingly 
and  heartily,  is  attempting  to  bear  the  balm  of  consolation  and  re- 
lief to  the  sufferers  in  that  stricken  city.  And  I  say  that  that  spec- 
tacle is  worth  more  than  all  the  treasures  of  Chicago.  We  could 
not  have  afforded  not  to  have  had  her  burned. 

But  it  does  not  stop  here.  It  is  quite  natural  that  our  Govern- 
ment should  command  General  Sheridan  to  place  every  tent  and 
every  blanket  in  the  West  at  the  disposal  of  the  suflferers.  It  is 
very  natural  that  car-loads  of  provisions  should  roll  toward  Chicago. 
The  Government  did  right,  if  there  was  no  law  for  it.  There  are  cases 
which  laws  are  not  made  to  meet,  and  this  is  one  of  them.  But  when 
Her  Majesty's  authorities  of  Great  Britain  emptied  the  magazines  in 
Canada  of  blankets  that  belonged  to  the  Imperial  Government,  and 
sent  them  over  the  border,  that  touched  my  heart.  Ah  !  there  is  more 
in  those  blankets  to  hold  Canada  to  our  hearts,  and  to  draw  Great 
Britain  to  us,  than  in  all  the  muskets  and  artillery  of  the  British 
Government.     Gi'eat  Britain  touched  deep  chords  within  us  during 


1 10  LUSSONS  FBOM  TEE 

the  war,  when,  in  the  midst  of  our  trials,  she  withheld  sympathy 
from  us  and  gave  it  to  our  enemies  ;  but  her  conduct  now  toward 
our  unfortunate  countrymen  at  the  West  is  touching  another  set  of 
chords.  And  when,  through  its  Mayor,  London  sends  a  thousand 
guineas  (thank  God  that  there  is  one  city  that  has  a  thousand 
guineas  to  send,  and  whose  treasury  is  not  emptied)  ;  when  the  great 
mercantile  firms  of  Great  Britain  sent  liberal  contributions  ;  yea, 
when  France,  thrice  smitten  and  desolated  by  war,  is  beginning  to 
send  back  some  of  that  benefaction  which  we  sent  her  in  her  dis- 
tress ;  when  Germany,  from  whose  loins  we  sprang,  and  of  our 
descent  from  whom  may  we  always  be  proud,  through  her  Exchange 
joins  in  this  good  work ;  yes,  when  Austria,  and  the  Danube  and 
the  Black  Sea,  and  even  oppressed  Ilungary,  who  has  not  for- 
gotten our  care  of  her  exiles,  recognize  this  mission  of  charity, 
the  spectacle  is  one  which  cannot  fail  to  excite  the  admiration  and 
gratitude  of  all  good  men.  The  whole  world  is  moved  by  one 
thought  and  feeling  to-day.  The  drum  stops,  and  the  heart  beats. 
Such  is  the  music  to  which  we  are  now  marching.  And  are  there 
in  these  facts  only  tears  and  doleful  lamentations  ?  Cannot  Chris- 
tian people  see  reason  for  anything  but  sorrow  in  the  events  which 
have  just  taken  place  and  are  now  taking  place  at  Chicago  ?  What  is 
the  -use  of  being  Christians,  if  we  have  no  better  glass  with  which  to 
read  the  providences  of  God  than  worldly  men  have  ?  Are  you  no 
better  for  being  a  Christian  ?  I  admit  the  disaster  and  the  sufferings 
on  the  one  side ;  and  I  see  benefits  that  will  come  from  them  on  the 
other.  I  think  Chicago  will  be  a  better  city  than  ever  before.  And 
I  think  the  true  policy  would  be  to  rebuild  it  speedily.  If  the 
States  of  the  West  would  furnish  twenty  millions,  and  forty  millions, 
and  New  York  should  say,  "  Whatever  capital  you  want  to  rebuild 
that  city  you  shall  have,"  it  would  be  a  gift,  not  to  Chicago  alone 
but  to  the  nation  and  to  the  world.  At  this  time  of  great  national 
disaster,  it  seems  to  me  that  communities  might  rise  to  a  higher 
plane,  and  manifest  more  genuine  sympathy  and  kindness,  than  they 
ordinarily  do  ;  but  if  selfishness  were  only  wise,  if  selfishness  but 
knew  its  interest,  it  would  learn  that  sympathy  is  better  for  selfish- 
ness than  selfishness  itself. 

Look,  then,  upon  this  great  catastrophe  of  our  times  in  this 
lio-ht.  I  should  be  ashamed  if  I  felt  obliged  to  follow  up  this  dis- 
course with  anything  like  an  urgent  and  imperative  entreaty  for  you 
to  make  your  contribution  to  this  object.  Many  of  the  gentlemen 
connected  with  this  church  and  society  have  already  contributed 
with  a  degree  of  liberality  which  has  made  me  proud  of  them.  They 
did  not  put  their  names  in  the  papers  for  the  sake  of  having  them 


GBI:A T  CHICAGO  FIBE.  Ill 

bruited  and  advertised  ;  but  I  was  glad  to  see  them  ;  and  others  I 
knew  had  given  with  equal  liberality  whose  names  did  not  appear 
in  the  public  prints.  Thousands  and  thousands,  I  may  say  tens  of 
thousands  of  dollars,  have  already  been  given  by  this  church  and 
congregation  ;  but  they  Avere  given  in  other  relations ;  and  it  is 
befitting  that  as  a  church  we  should  express  our  sympathy  with  the 
sufiering  citizens  of  Chicago,  without  regard  to  sect  or  denomina- 
tion, and  also  express  our  desire  to  have  part  and  lot  in  the  rebuild- 
ing upon  the  ruins  of  this  great  disaster. 

Do  not  think  that  the  tide  ii3  becoming  so  deep  that  the  wants 
of  the  sufferers  are  supplied,  and  more  than,  supplied.  I  suppose 
there  are  from  seventy-five  thousand  to  one  hundred  thousand  per" 
sons  who  will  require  assistance  all  the  coming  winter.  Anybody 
who  has  had  to  do  Avith  clothing  and  feeding  an  army,  Avill  under- 
stand that  to  take  care,  for  four  or  five  months,  of  seventy-five 
thousand  persons,  is  a  gigantic  task,  and  that  a  few  millions  of  dol- 
lars will  not  do  it.  Do  not  be  afraid,  then,  that  you  will  overswell 
the  tide. 

Men  and  brethren,  you  must  change  your  impulse  into  a  prin- 
ciple, and  organize  yourselves,  as  I  am  thankful  that  the  ladies  are 
doing,  into  a  permanent  source  of  relief.  There  is  need  for  all  that 
you  can  do  in  the  way  of  clothing  the  naked  and  feedino-  the 
hungry. 

So,  then,  what  you  give  to-day  is  not  the  whole,  it  is  but  the  be- 
ginning, of  the  stream  of  charity  which  will  flow  through  all  the 
winter,  and  change  it,  to  many  thousand  hearts,  into  spring  and 
summer. 

There  is  not  a  child  here  so  poor  that  God  will  not  bless  his 
penny.  Do  not  be  afraid  to  give  because  you  ai-e  poor.  Give  as  God 
has  prospered  you.  And  let  me  say  more  than  that :  though  you  have 
given  elsewhere,  remember  that  sorrow  comes  back  CA'cry  mornino- 
and  let  your  bounty  repeat  itself.  It  will  not  hurt  you.  Music  con- 
sists, not  in  a  single  note,  but  in  a  succession  of  notes.  Play  a  tune 
then,  by  your  benevolence. 

Let  me  say,  further,  that  as  you  are  prudent  men,  and  do  not 
carry  in  your  pockets  so  much  money  as  it  is  proper  that  you  should 
give  on  an  occasion  like  this,  you  are  requestedto  hand  in,  on  a  slip 
of  paper,  your  name  and  residence,  and  the  amount  that  you  will 
contribute,  and  we  will  see  that  you  are  found  out,  and  relieved  of 
the  trouble  of  coming  to  pay  it.* 


*  The  amount  contributed  was  $5,000. 


112  LESSONS  FROM  THE 

PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

Almighty  God,  we  lift  ourselves  up  from  darkness,  from  weakness,  and 
from  uncertainty,  and  take  great  delight  in  beholding  thee.  And  yet  thou 
art  formless,  and  our  thoughts  cannot  compass  thee.  We  know  not  how  to 
describe  what  thou  art  to  our  own  thought,  for  thou  art  forever  changing, 
and  yet  art  unchangeable.  Thou  art  coming  to  us  in  all  our  moods  and  neces- 
sities differently;  and  yet,  thou  art  the  same  God,  yesterday,  to-day  and  for- 
ever—always true,  always  just,  always  pure,  always  loving.  But  with  how 
many  inflections  dost  thou  make  love  to  appear  to  us — sometimes  in  great 
tenderness ;  sometimes  in  chastisements ;  sometimes  in  healing  mercies ;  in 
restraint  to-day,  and  in  blessed  impulsion  to-morrow.  In  how  many  ways 
dost  thou  inspire  in  us  the  thought  of  divine  justice,  and  create  in  us  a  spirit 
of  love  and  mercy !  When  we  are  in  great  despondency,  thou  art  a  God  that 
bends  over  and  stoops  to  vis.  Even  as  a  hen  gathereth  her  chickens  under 
her  wings,  so  dost  thou  gather  to  thee  those  who  need  shelter  and  protection. 
In  the  times  of  our  triumph,  when  all  things  about  us  are  full  of  brightness, 
thou  art  full  of  sympathy,  and  we  look  up  to  thee  no  longer  as  coming  in 
pity  to  us,  but  as  pointing  to  the  way  of  higher  things,  and  inspiring  us,  as 
with  regal  ambition,  to  be  as  the  sons  of  God,  and  saying,  Count  yourselves 
to  be  sons  of  God,  and  walk  worthy  of  your  vocation.  Thou  dost  draw  near 
to  us  in  our  hours  of  solitude  and  silence,  and  commune  with  us.  And  as  a 
friend,  thou  art  full  of  the  gentleness  of  friendship.  Thou  dost  come  in  our 
hours  of  despondency  and  darkness.  And  oh !  how  wondrous  is  the  whisper, 
then,  of  encouragement  and  mercy,  with  which  thou  dost  cheer  us,  and  lift 
us  out  of  gloom,  so  that  we  feel,  Not  unto  us,  not  unto  us :  the  mainspring 
of  hope  is  of  God. 

We  rejoice  that  thus  with  iofluite  versatility  thou  art  distilling  thyself 
upon  the  hearts  that  need  thee ;  and  that  yet  thou  art  unchanged ;  that  thou 
art  the  same  God  that  the  patriarchs  loved  and  revered ;  that  thou  art  the 
same  God  that  the  prophets  worshiped  in  their  stormy  career:  the  same 
God  that  the  disciples  knew  and  the  apostles  taught;  the  same  God  to 
whom  our  fathers  looked  for  succor.  And  as  thou  didst  guide  them,  so  thou 
wilt  guide  us  their  children. 

And  now  we  pray  that  we  may  have  inspired  in  us  the  strength  which 
comes,  not  from  a  consciousness  of  our  own  power,  nor  of  our  own  riches,  nor 
of  our  own  helpfulness,  but  from  thee.  May  we  glory  in  the  Lord.  May  wo 
be  strong  in  the  Lord.  May  we  rejoice  in  the  Lord,  and  be  filled.  May  wo 
have  so  supreme  a  rest  and  confidence  in  thee  that  we  shall  be  able  to  say, 
If  God  be  for  us,  who  can  be  against  us  ?  or.  What  can  be  against  us  ?  May 
the  thought  of  the  treasure  which  we  have  in  thee,  of  our  preciousness  in  thy 
sight,  lift  us  above  fear,  and  confusion,  and  bewilderment,  and  the  disasters 
which  are  transpiring  so  constantly  in  human  life.  May  we  not  fear  life,  nor 
death,  nor  poverty,  nor  distress.  May  we  not  fear  anything  outside  of  our- 
selves. But  may  we  have  a  sovereign  fear  of  wrong.  May  we  be  so  full  of 
sensitiveness,  and  so  full  of  watchfulness,  that  we  shall  be  shielded  from 
every  other  intrusive  fear.  In  the  Lord  may  we  find  a  refuge— a  door— and 
fly  higher  than  man  can  reach,  and  where  evil  thoughts  cannot  come  to  sully 
or  defile  that  peace  which  passes  all  understanding. 

So  make  us  thy  children  inwardly.  And  by  these  most  dear  and  sacred 
experiences  bind  our  hearts  together.  May  we  run  in  and  out  before  God. 
And  may  we  be  as  the  little  children  of  parents  beloved,  and  find  our  home 
in  thy  presence. 

And  grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  more  and  more  all  that  have  named  thy 
name  may  enter  into  the  largeness  and  richness  of  this  faith  of  God.  Oh,  grant 


GBJEA  T  CEICA  G  O  FIBE.  113 

that  this  life  of  the  soul  may  seem  more  to-day  than  all  its  knowledge— than 
all  its  attainments !  In  every  direction  may  we  strive  more  by  knowledge  to 
come  to  this  better  life  and  this  higher  sphere  where  thou  art,  and  where 
thou  mayst  interpret,  and  where  men  can  only  be  inspired. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  bless  every  one  in  thy  presence  this  morning. 
Thou  knowest  the  sorrows  of  all.  Thou  knowest  their  cares,  their  burdens, 
their  repentances,  their  remorse.  Thou  knowest  their  despondency  and 
despair.  All  these  things  have  been  in  thy  experience.  Thou  hast  not 
sinned ;  and  yet  thou  hast  borne  the  sin  of  the  transgressor,  as  if  it  were 
thine  own.  Thou  hast  gone  through  all  the  horror  that  the  human  soul 
knows.  Such  was  the  darkness  of  thine  experience  that  thou  didst  cry  out. 
My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me  ?  Thou  didst  suffer  on  earth  for 
purposes  of  love  that  thou  mightest  be  a  high  priest  and  a  succor  to  those  who 
are  imperfect  and  sinful,  and  need  thee.  And  oh,  how  many  there  are  that 
need  thee  this  morning !  Wilt  thou  draw  near  to  their  hearts.  See  how  poor 
are  the  offerings  which  they  bring  I  Tell  them  that  thou  necaest  none.  How 
imperfect  is  their  knowledge  I  Tell  them  that  thine  eye  pierces  behind  all 
things,  and  that  they  are  naked  and  open  before  thee.  How  wicked  is  the 
repentance  of  men !  How  poor  are  their  resolutions  for  the  future !  Tell  them 
that  thou  wilt  not  break  the  bruised  reed,  nor  quench  the  smoking  flax  until 
thou  dost  bring  forth  judgment  unto  victory.  Art  thou  not  the  God  that  poor 
feeble,  stumbling,  wicked  hearts  need  ?  And  if  there  are  those  in  thy  pres- 
ence who  are  ashamed  to  come  to  thee,  or  do  not  know  how  to  come,  or  who 
are  waiting  to  be  better  before  they  come,  not  understanding  the  royal 
secret  that  to  be  filled  with  suffering  and  sorrow  is  preparation  enough, 
teach  them  this  morning,  that  every  heart  that  needs  may  find  that  which 
it  needs  in  God ;  that  every  feeble  one  may  find  strength  in  God ;  that  every 
mourner  may  find  comfort  in  God ;  that  every  darkened  soul  may  find  light 
in  God;  that  every  one  who  seeks  to  find  his  way  out  from  the  wilderness 
into  the  fruitful  field,  and  is  lost  in  the  tangled  thicket,  may  still  find  thee 
going  out  to  seek  and  to  save  the  lost. 

So  work  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  are  now  present  that  they  shall  be 
filled  with  gratitude  and  with  faith  and  with  hope  and  with  victory.  And 
we  pray  that  thou  -wilt  grant  that  all  thy  dispensations  of  providence  may 
be  blessed  to  those  severally  who  are  affected  by  them.  May  those  who  are 
in  prosperity  remember  the  days  of  adversity.  May  those  who  are  in  trouble 
remember  the  bright  days  that  have  been  and  shall  be.  May  all  of  us  live  as 
though  we  were  living  higher  and  better  than  the  things  of  this  world.  May 
we  look  forward  as  strangers  and  pilgrims  more  to  the  end  of  the  journey 
than  to  the  fare  which  we  experience  by  the  way.  May  we  not  disdain  the 
flowers  that  spring  up  by  our  path,  nor  fail  to  pluck  the  fruits  that  grow 
near  to  our  hand ;  and  yet  may  no  prospect,  no  hope  of  delight,  stop  us  on 
the  road  while  we  are  traveling  back  to  God. 

And  grant  thy  blessing  to  rest  upon  all  those  who  are  sick.  Fill  with  the 
light  of  thy  presence  the  chambers  of  weariness  and  of  pain.  Give  the  power 
of  consolation  to  those  who  would  console.  And  grant  that  the  ministration 
of  thy  servants  everywhere,  who  seek  to  make  known  Jesus  Christ  as  the 
very  fountain  of  life  to  those  who  are  in  trouble,  may  be  blessed  of  God. 
May  they  be  taught  how  to  teach,  and  how  to  inspire  the  truth. 

And  we  pray,  O  Lord,  that  thou  wilt  grant  thy  blessing  to  rest  on  the 
labors  of  thy  servants  in  the  Sabbath-schools  and  Bible-classes ;  in  houses  of 
the  sick,  and  the  poor,  and  the  ignorant;  in  prisons  and  hospitals ;  in  ships 
and  in  shops.  Wherever  their  hand  seeks  to  do  good,  may  they  And  thee 
present  with  them,  causing  flowers  to  spring  up  and  blossom  in  their  path. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  thy  blessing  to  rest  on  all  thy  churches 
to-day.    Fill  them  with  thine  own  presence.    May  the  precious  love  of  God 


1  ,  4         LESSONS  FBOM  THE  GEE  A  T  CHIC  A  G  0  FIEE' 

through  Jesus  Christ  be  such  as  to  fill  every  heart,  and  every  mouth  that 
shall  speak.  And  may  the  Gospel  indeed  become  good  news  again.  May  it 
cease  from  being  a  sound  of  war.  More  and  more  let  the  preaching  of  the 
Gospel  be  of  the  higher  things  which  belong  to  the  eternal  estate  of  tho 
human  soul. 

And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  thy  blessing  to  rest  on  our  whole  land. 
Remember  it  in  all  its  parts.  Remember  those  who  have  been  enslaved,  but 
who  are  now  free,  and  are  seeking  slowly  and  doubtfully  their  way  to  in- 
telligence and  truth  and  virtue  and  religion.  Inspire  the  hearts  of  those 
around  about  them  with  more  true  Christian  zeal  to  love  and  labor  for  the 
poor  and  the  outcast. 

We  pray,  O  Lord,  that  thou  wilt  remember  any  who  have  taken  their 
lives  in  their  hands,  and  gone  forth  suffering  obloquy  and  shame,  to  dwell 
among  the  benighted,  and  to  icspire  and  cheer  them.  Wherever  they  are 
may  they  find  that  they  are  not  a  hand-breadth  from  thee.  And  though 
they  be  in  solitude,  may  they  feel  that  God  is  always  speaking  with  them 
and  within  them.  May  their  lives  be  precious,  may  their  labor  be  long,  and 
may  the  fruit  thereof  be  abundant.  And  we  pray  that  there  may  be  more 
and  more  willing  to  do  as  thou  didst,  who,  though  rich,  for  our  sakes  be- 
came poor,  that  through  thy  poverty  we  might  become  rich. 

Remember  especially  that  great  city  on  whom  thou  hast  laid  thy  burning 
hand.  Grant,  we  beseech  of  thee,  as  thou  hast  shown  the  sovereignty  of 
thy  power  and  thy  wonder-working  providence,  what  time  thou  didst  per- 
mit the  elements  of  nature,  as  thy  ministers,  to  go  forth  to  destruction,  so 
again  to  draw  back  thy  hand  and  reach  it  forth  as  thou  hast  been  accustomed 
to  do  full  of  bounties  and  mercies,  distilling  them  as  the  dews  of  the  night 
and  the  morning.  And  grant  that  the  foundations  may  be  builded  again, 
and  that  fairer  homes  may  spring  up  in  the  places  of  those  that  are  gone, 
and  that  new  temples  may  resound  with  gratitude  and  praise  where  the 
old  ones  stood. 

Strengthen,  especially,  the  hands  of  thy  servants,  that  they  may  never 
doubt  thee,  that  hope  may  ride  triumphant  over  despondency,  and  that 
courage  may  utterly  drive  away  fear. 

And  we  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  sanctify  that  great  sympathy 
which  thou  hast  been  pleased  to  create  in  this  nation  toward  the  despoiled. 
May  it  be  a  means  of  grace  to  those  that  send  it  forth,  and  draw  closer  and 
closer  the  bonds  of  unity  between  all  the  parts  of  this  land,  and  between 
all  the  nations  of  the  earth.  Oh,  let  the  spirit  of  brotherhood  begin  to  tri- 
umph I  How  long  shall  the  world  be  governed  by  force  ?  Huw  long  shall 
it  be  governed  by  authority  ?  How  long  shall  it  be  under  the  sway  of  the 
despotic  human  will  ?  When  wilt  thou  arouse  them  who  are  asleep  in  their 
own  higher  and  better  nature,  in  their  diviner  self,  so  that  ihey  shall  rise 
in  the  plenitude  of  their  power,  and  begiu  to  love  God,  and  to  love  one  an- 
other, and  find  that  the  love  of  God  dispossssses  cruelty,  and  casts  out 
selfishness,  and  expunges  from  the  wretchedness  of  the  world  all  that  dark 
lore  of  sorrow  which  thus  far  has  blotted  the  pages  of  history? 

O  Lord  our  God,  when  wilt  thou  come  to  fulfill  thy  promises  ?  How  slow 
are  thy  promises!  Who  art  thou  that  dost  hide  thyself  when  the  whole 
earth  goes  groaning  and  travailing  in  pain,  through  ages  ?  When  wilt  thou 
unwrap  thy  face  and  shine  forth  ?  O  thou  with  whom  have  been  the  thun- 
der and  the  lightning,  O  thou  with  whom  is  the  summer,  and  the  sweet 
calm  and  dear  delight  of  ages,  come.  We  have  had  thy  winter,  we  have 
tasted  some  of  thy  spring:  bring  to  us  the  everlasting  summtr— the  sum- 
mer of  a  thousand  years. 

And  to  thy  name  shall  be  the  praise,  Father,  Son  and  Holy  Spirit. 
Amen. 


VII. 

Sovereignty  and  Permanence  of 

Love. 


INVOCATION. 

Most  needy,  we  come  to  thee,  our  Fjither.  Most  of  all,  necessitous  in  the 
spirit.  We  need,  this  morning,  that  gift  by  which  life  comes  to  us  from  thee 
— life  in  our  better  part.  Wilt  thou  be  pleased  to  guide  our  understanding. 
Wilt  thou  be  pleased  to  enlighten  our  faitli.  Grant  that  we  may  rise  above 
things  that  are  seen,  into  the  invisible  realm  where  thou  art ;  where  all  the 
blessedness  of  truth  brings  forth  its  fruit.  Let  us  be,  this  morning,  not 
alone  outwardly  before  thee,  but  inwardly  with  thee.  May  we  hear  thee 
calling  to  us.  May  wo  rejoice  in  thy  praise.  May  we  sing  thy  praises  with 
gladness.  May  we  offer  up  our  thanksgiving  in  prayer  and  communion 
with  thee.  And  may  our  supplications  be  guided  by  thy  blessed  and  sancti- 
fyiug  Spirit.  We  pray  that  all  our  fellowship  in  the  Gospel  of  Christ  may 
be  sanctified  ;  and  that  we  may  walk  worthy  of  him  by  whom  we  are 
called.  These  mercies  we  ask  for  Christ's  sake.  Amen. 
7. 


SOVEREIGNTY  AND  PERMANENCE 
OF  LOVE. 


•*  And  BOW  abideth  faith,  hope,  charity  [or  love],  these  three  ;  but  tha 
greatest  ol  these  is  love  [traualated  charityj."    I  Cob.  XIII.  13. 


Of  all  the  symphonies  that  Beethoven  ever  wrote,  the  Fifth 
seems  to  me  to  be  the  center  and  climax.  The  others  stream  out 
from  it,  as  it  were,  like  rays  of  light  from  a  central  sun.  It  is  the 
one  bright,  magnificent  exhibition  of  consummate  musical  genius. 
Now,  what  the  Fifth  Symphony  is  to  Beethoven's  music,  I  think 
that  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  1st  Corinthians  is  to  the  Bible  ;  and 
especially  to  the  New  Testament.  It  is  the  more  extraordinary 
because  of  the  literary  context  in  which  it  stands.  It  is  as  if,  in  a 
mighty  battle,  there  should  suddenly  be  a  cessation  of  arms,  and 
there  should  be  lifted  up,  and  roll  over  the  battle-field,  a  wondrous 
hymn,  united  in  by  all  the  bands  ;  and  as  if  no  sooner  were  the  notes 
of  this  magnificent  music  completed  than  the  battle  should  beo-in 
again,  and  the  bands,  separating,  should  go  their  several  ways,  to 
cheer  their  several  squadrons. 

Paul  has  been  arguing,  up  to  this  time,  on  the  subject  of  the 
diverse  gifts — and  they  toere  strange  and  diverse  gifts.  He  has 
been  settling  difficult  questions  and  points  of  disagreement.  He  has 
been  fending  off,  pushing  aside,  opposition.  It  is  controversial  all 
the  way  through.  And  there  suddenly  rises  up  here  that  which  is 
better  than  these  special  gifts  of  prophecy  and  knowledge  and  faith 
and  healing — the  essential  feeling  of  love.  .  He  stops  the  argument 
and  illustration,  and  lifts  up  this  magnificent  descant,  running- 
through  the  thirteen  verses  of  the  thirteenth  chapter.  And  the 
moment  it  is  over,  he  goes  back  to  his  duty  again,  and  commences 
the  same  controversial  strain  once  more. 

In  the  passage  which  we  have  selected  for  our  text,  there  is  the 
unequivocal  declaration  that  love  is  the  supremest  of  all  elements  ; 
and  that  in  connection  Avith  others  that  arc  mentioned  (not  alone, 

Sunday  Morning,  Oct.  23, 18T1.    Lesson  :   1.  Con.  XTTI.  Hymns  (Plymouth  CoUeo- 
lion):  Nos.  S87,  381,  "  Sbimng  Shi«re." 


118  SO  VEBEIGNTY  AND 

perhaps)  it  is  a  sufficient  guide.  Faith  and  hope  and  love  are  the 
three  religious  elements  which  are  not  relative  nor  transient.  They 
do  not  belong  simply  to  an  impeifcct  state  of  being.  They  are 
absolute  and  permanent.  Whatever  else  changes,  these  will  not 
change. 

"  Now  abideth  faith,  hope,  love,  these  three ;  but  the  greatest  of  these  is 
love." 

The  supremacy  and  absoluteness  or  permanence  of  love,  then,  is 
the  theme  that  I  am  going  to  speak  about  this  morning. 

1.  Consider  what  is  meant  by  charity^  as  it  is  unfortunately 
translated  (time  has  made  it  unfortunate.)  What  is  meant  by  that 
love  ?  It  is  so  generic  that  it  is  not  easily  defined.  You  must  de- 
scribe it,  rather  than  attempt  to  define  it.  That  which  is  nearest  to 
a  definition  is  the  command, 

"  Thou  Shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy 
soul,  and  with  all  thy  strength,  and  with  all  thy  mind,  and  thy  neighbor  as 
thyself." 

In  other  words,  it  is  not  a  faculty.  It  is  the  union  of  the  faculties 
of  the  human  soul  in  a  given  direction.  It  is  that  state  of  the  whole 
soul  in  which  it  moves  toward  all  beings,  whether  they  be  superior 
or  whether  they  be  equals,  with  good  will,  with  aifection,  with  sym- 
pathy. It  is  having  toward  others  the  same  desire  for  goodness  and 
happiness  and  well-being  which  we  have  toward  ourselves.  It  is 
being  and  acting  as  if  every  other  creature  on  earth,  when  brought 
to  our  knowledge,  were  but  another  self,  so  that  we  were  instant, 
instinct  and  affluent  in  sympathy,  and  in  that  same  sort  of  quick 
kindness  which  we  feel  for  our  own  selves.  It  is  not  mere  friend- 
ship, although  friendship  falls  out  in  it,  as  a  species  under  a  genus. 
It  is  not  merely  sympathy  with  character.  We  do  sympathize  with 
goodness  in  character  ;  but  that  is  only  a  minor  development  of  it. 
It  is  not  simply  personal  reciprocation,  as  where  one  loves,  being 
loved  ;  or  where  one  is  kind,  having  received  kindness.  This  is  in- 
cluded in  it ;  but  it  is  only  a  single  inflection  of  the  greater  disposi- 
tion. These  higher  qualities  are  merely  species  under  the  larger 
form  of  development. 

Love,  which  is  represented  in  the  New  Testament,  and  of  which 
Christ  was  the  particular  exemplar,  is  sympathy  for  universal  sen- 
tient existence — for  all  that  live.  And  it  is  a  sympathy  which  car- 
ries their  welfare  with  it.  In  its  larger  development,  it  carries  in  it 
the  welfare  of  all  creatures,  both  for  time  and  for  eternity.  It  may 
develop  itself  in  severity  ;  in  restraint  ;  in  the  infliction  of  pain  ;  iu 
seclusions  and  exclusions.  It  may  develop  itself  in  smiles,  in  gifts,  ia 
helps,  in  warmths,  in  approval  ;  or  contrariwise,  it  may  neglect  and 
chastise.     Whatever  may  be  the  special  instruments  or  methods  by 


FBBMANBNCE  OF  LO  YE.  119 

wrhich  it  acts,  the  sovereign  center  and  the  determining  criterion  of 
the  feeling,  is,  that  it  carries  with  it  royal,  cordial,  sj'inpathetic 
desires  for  the  well-being  of  every  creature.  It  is  love,  whether  it 
strike,  or  pierce,  or  slay,  or  give  bitter  medicine,  or  give  the  cup  of 
sorrow,  or  give  the  cup  of  joy.  It  is  love  whether  it  wring  tears  or 
inspire  smiles.  Whatever  it  is,  the  central  element  of  it  is,  the 
sympathetic  and  unquestionable  wish  of  the  heart  for  the  well-being 
of  the  persons  toward  whom  it  acts — or  the  creatures,  if  it  acts 
generically. 

The  center  of  this  love,  then,  is  sympathy  for  the  real  good  and 
happiness  of  others.  That  is  as  near  as  I  can  describe  it  to-day.  I 
shall  try  again.  I  have  tried  fifty  times  to  describe  it,  and  every 
time  I  have  felt  as  though  I  had  just  glanced  at  it,  and  not  hit  it; 
and  I  do  not  feel  as  though  I  had  done  much  better  than  that  this 
morning.  As  near  as  I  can  strike  it  to-day,  this  is  that  large  spirit 
of  charity,  or  love,  which  is  nowhere  else  so  well  described  as  in  the 
thirteenth  of  Corinthians.  There  it  is  declared  to  be  a  permanent 
element  which  is  to  survive  all  wreck  of  time,  and  to  endure 
throughout  eternity. 

2.  It  is  this  benevolent  sympathy  that  the  apostle  declares  to  be 
the  touch-stone  and  the  test  of  all  virtues.  You  are  to  recollect 
that  he  was  writing  this  letter  to  the  Corinthian  Church ;  and  that 
the  Corinthian  Church  was  a  Greek  church  ;  and  that  the  Greek 
modes  of  thought  and  philosophy  wei'e  current  there.  And 
although  there  was  a  synagogue  of  Jews  there,  as  everywhere 
else,  yet  the  mind  of  the  apostle,  as  is  shown  all  through  the 
first  and  second  Epistles,  was  dwelling  on  the  Greek  method  or 
habit  of  thought.  What  does  he  say  ?  He  says  that  this  large 
sympathy,  this  desire  for  the  welfare  of  all  creatures  that  can  feel 
or  think  or  act,  is  transcendent  not  only,  but  is  the  test ;  that  it  is 
the  quality  which  must  inhere  in  every  other  virtue  ;  that  it  is  that 
without  which  every  other  virtue  is  hollow  and  nugatory. 

"  Though  I  speak  with  the  tongues  of  men  and  of  angels,  and  have  not 
love,  I  am  become  aa  sounding  brass  or  a  tinkling  cymbal." 

That  is,  Though  I  have  every  form  of  literary  genius ;  though 
I  chant  with  the  hymnist ;  though  I  declaim  with  the  orator ; 
though  I  write  with  the  historian,  speaking  by  the  pen ;  though  I 
am  as  a  poet  inspired  ;  yet  all  inspiration  which  develops  itself  in 
the  form  of  literature,  if  it  be  not  pervaded  by,  and  if  at  the  root  it 
be  not  determined  by,  this  quality  of  sympathetic  well-wishing  or 
benevolence,  is  in  the  ear  of  God  like  the  sound  of  brass  or  of  a 
tinkling  cymbal. 

Genius  that  is  benevolent,  is  divine ;  and  all  genius,  of  singing 
poets,  and  of  attractive  speakers  and  writers ;  all  the  attainments 


120  SOVEBEIGNTI  AND 

of  men  in  literature ;  all  men's  thoughts  and  fancies,  unless  they  are 
thoughts  and  fancies  rooting  themselves  in  this  divine  genius  of 
sympathetic  benevolence,  are  as  sounding  brass  or  a  tinkling  cymbal 

He  goes  further : 
"  Though  I  have  the  gift  of  prophecy." 

Prophecy  means  the  gift  of  inspiration.  It  carries  with  it,  also, 
sometimes,  the  moral  intuitions  ;  but  these  are  special.  And  it  carries 
with  it  foresight — the  seeing  of  things  that  have  not  yet  come  to 
pass.  But  in  general,  in  the  Bible,  throughout,  the  meaning  of 
'prophecy  is  inspiration  for  teaching. 

"  Though  I  have  the  gift  of  prophecy,  and  understand  all  mysteries  [hid- 
den things],  and  all  knowledge." 

There  is  a  description  of  the  intellect — of  intellectual  power. 
The  apostle,  if  he  had  spoken  in  the  phrase  of  our  day,  would  have 
said,  "  All  intellectual  gifts  and  all  intellectual  power,  if  they  are 
not  imbued  with  and  directed  by  the  spirit  of  sympathy  and  benevo- 
lence and  well-wishing,  are  nothing."  That  is,  they  have  no  moral 
value. 

More  than  that,  he  declares  that  the  enthusiasm  of  conviction, 
of  faith,  such  as  inspires  a  man,  is  of  no  validity  except  it  be  benevo- 
lent. 

"  Though  I  have  all  faith,  so  that  I  could  remove  mountains,  and  have 
not  love,  I  am  nothing." 

We  see  in  our  day  again,  as  the  apostle  saw  in  his  day,  that 
there  are  certain  moods  of  mind.  Men  may  call  it  fantasy,  or  what 
they  please.  It  is  occult,  obscure,  not  yet  even  investigated,  quite 
unknown.  And  yet,  men  do  rise  into  an  upper  sphere  in  which  they 
seem  to  have  a  strange  power  over  even  natural  law,  or  material 
law;  and  to  have  strange  power  in  other  directions.  And  the 
apostle,  looking  upon  all  these  developments  and  gifts,  called  them 
by  the  generic  term  of  faith. 

"  Though  I  have  all  faith,  so  that  I  could  remove  mountains,  and  have 
not  love,  it  proflteth  me  nothing." 

He  says  that  even  these  transcendent  developments,  if  they  are 
not  pervaded  and  vitalized  by  a  true  spirit  of  benevolent  love,  are 
nothing. 

Nay,  a  man  may  distribute  his  wealth  with  a  free  hand,  ana 
leave  himself  poor,  and  yet  come  short  of  fulfilling  the  requirements 
of  the  Gospel. 

"  Though  I  give  all  my  goods  to  feed  the  poor,  and  have  not  love,  it 
profltetli  me  nothing." 

A  man  may  give  his  goods  to  feed  the  poor  from  a  mere  super- 
stition of  conscience.  There  are  men  who  feel  that  it  is  their  duty 
to  do  it,  and  who  do  it  for  that  reason.  It  is  conscience,  and  not 
love,  that  actuates  them. 

The  Greeks  and  Romans  were  familiar  with  another  form  of  dis- 


PERMANENCE  OF  LOVE  121 

tribi;tive  charity.  That  was  where  men  were  ambitious,  and  sought 
public  favors.  Making  large  sums  of  money,  they  distributed  them 
by  giving  shows  and  processions  for  the  sake  of  furthering  their 
ambitious  ends.  But  neither  a  conscientious  nor  an  ambitious  dis- 
tribution of  wealth  is  enough.  The  mere  fact  of  distributing  one's 
means  among  men  will  not  do.  There  must  be  a  heart  behind  the  act. 
"Though  I  give  my  body  to  be  burned,  and  have  not  love,  it  proflteth 
me  nothing." 

Though  a  man's  zeal  for  his  party,  or  for  his  philosophy,  or  for 
his  church,  or  for  any  cause,  whatever  it  may  be,  in  which  he  is  en- 
gaged, is  such  that  he  is  willing  to  stand  up  to  the  last  and  die,  he 
may  fall  below  the  fulfillment  of  this  divine  principle  of  action.  A 
man  may  die  for  his  pride,  or  for  his  conscience,  or  for  a  variety  of 
reasons  besides  true  love.  He  that  dies  loving,  dies  divinely,  and 
nobody  else  does.  Love  is  the  leaven,  and  every  quality  is  dough 
that  has  not  that  in  it,  no  matter  what  it  is. 

All  cold  annunciation  of  truth  is  therefore  a  false  annunciation 
of  truth.     All  cold  defense  of  the  truth  in  sympathy  with  a  system, 
in  sympathy  with  moral  government,  in  sympathy  with  intellectual 
excellence,  is  spurious.     The  apostle  elsewhere  gives  us  the  maxim, 
"Speaking  the  truth  in  love." 

Speaking  the  truth  is  not.  enough.  A  man  may  speak  the  truth 
and  not  do  it  in  the  Gospel  spirit.  I  have  known  men  who  spoke 
the  truth  as  in  summer,  once  in  a  while,  clouds  spit  rain  in  the  shape 
of  hailstones.  When  it  rains,  every  plant  on  earth  lifts  up  its  blos- 
soms and  leaves,  and  thanks  God ;  but  when  it  rains  hail,  nothing 
thanks  God.  Everything  is  pelted  down.  Oftentimes  when  men 
proclaim  the  truth  it  is  a  hailstone  teaching. 

All  cold  and  heartless  justice  ;  all  bare  sense  of  proportion  ;  all 
mere  right ;  all  abstract  rectitude,  as  measured  by  any  ordinary 
standard — this  is  not  enough.  Justice  is  not  justice  unless  it  has  a 
heart  of  love  in  it.  Purity  and  integrity  which  care  only  for  them- 
selves are  not  pure.  They  are  not  integers.  All  moral  qualities,  all 
devotion,  all  worship,  all  prayer,  all  perfunctory  service,  are  lost, 
unless  they  have  this  mainspring,  true  love.  Nothing  may  live  with- 
out it.  Truth  is  not  true,  justice  is  not  just,  obedience  is  not  right, 
worship  is  hollow,  and  all  aspiration  vagrant,  without  love.  With 
love,  there  is  truth,  and  there  is  justice,  and  there  is  pain,  and  there  • 
are  strokes.  Love  wrings  tears  ;  love  shuts  up  men  ;  love  chastises 
men ;  love  grasps  men  even  unto  death.  In  some  sense  love  may  be 
said  to  be  remorseless.  So  it  is  with  the  mother's  love.  Seeing  that 
the  child's  life  cannot  be  saved  unless  some  instant  surgical  opera- 
tion be  performed,  if  the  physician  is  absent,  she  performs  it,  la 
spite  of  the  cries  and  struggles  of  the  child,  rather  than  that  it  shall 


122  SOYEEEIGNTY  AND 

die.  Love  may  "be  severe.  Love  is  just,  and  love  is  true,  and  love. 
is  pure,  and  love  is  oftentimes  apparently  harsh.  Love  has  universal 
command  of  all  instruments.  It  is  back  of  all  instruments.  It  af- 
fects all  seemings.  The  true  feeling  is  a  yearning,  sympathetic  do- 
sire  for  the  good  of  those  who  are  touched  or  affected. 

So,  then,  whether  it  gives  or  takes  away,  whether  it  caresses  or 
repels,  whether  it  strikes  or  binds  up,  the  essential  spirit  of  love  is  a 
real  sympathetic  and  earnest  desire  for  the  profit  of  those  who  ai'e 
affected  by  it.  And  without  this  there  can  be  no  teaching  that  is  ' 
good,  no  philosophy  that  is  good,  no  moral  government  that  is  good, 
and  no  administration  of  law  that  is  good.  It  is  the  universal  and 
indispensable  quality  of  all  right  moral  action.  It  must  lie  at  the 
foundation  of  our  ideas  of  the  character  of  God.  No  character  of 
God  is  rightly  put  together  or  rightly  conceived  of  in  which  tie 
overruling  sovereignty  does  not  inhere  in  love.  He  is  a  "  consuming 
fire,"  He  has  zeal  and  fury  which,  as  it  were,  "  burn  to  the  lowest 
hell,"  at  times ;  but,  after  all,  these  are  but  the  hands  of  love  stretched 
out,  by  which  love  is  working.  And  any  character  of  God  which  is 
fashioned  to  produce  any  other  impression  than  that ;  any  character 
which  presents  him  to  your  thought  as  more  wise  than  love,  more 
true  than  love,  more  pure  than  love;  any  conception  of  God  which 
is  stronger  in  your  mind  than  that  of  a  real  sympathetic,  loving  God, 
is  false.  If  you  worship  God  as  a  being  other  than  a  God  of  love, 
you  are  worshiping  a  demon.  For  God  is  love.  Many  and  many 
a  man  will  have  to  throw  away  his  God  before  he  can  enter  heaven. 

Any  conception  of  moral  government  which  makes  it  other  than 
an  organized  and  Avise  organization  of  true  sympathetic  benevolence 
and  love,  is  a  false  conception  of  moral  government.  We  hear  much 
about  the  welfare  of  the  universe.  That  is  an  abstraction.  God's 
moral  government  is  for  the  welfare  of  the  hicUviduals  of  the  uni- 
verse— of  every  living  thing  in  the  universe. 

All  conceptions  of  Christian  character  are  just  so  far  imperfect  as 
they  are  made  to  stand  in  anything  besides  this  true  benevolence. 
All  administrations  of  affairs,  all  administrations  of  moral  govern- 
ment, all  administrations  of  political  interests,  all  administrations  of 
international  law,  must  have  this  element  of  love  in  them  as  a  reg- 
nant quality.  It  is  the  determining  element,  the  touch-stone,  by 
which  all  these  are  to  be  tested.  International  law  has  no  right  to 
be  selfish.  The  statutes  of  a  country  have  no  right  to  be  selfish. 
You  have  no  right  to  have  a  political  economy  which  takes  care  of 
this  nation  at  the  expense  of  any  other  nation.  You  have  no  right 
to  build  up  the  United  States  of  America  to  the  neglect  of  England 
or  France  or  Prussia.     You  must  have  a  political  economy  that  ad- 


FEBMANENCE  OF  LOYK  123 

ministers  for  the  best  good  of  the  whole,  and  not  for  any  special 
part.  The  administration  of  civil  law  must  have  this  central  idea 
of  love  as  its  motive-power,  and  not  any  abstract  notion  of  govern- 
ment. There  may  be  the  infliction  of  pain  in  the  administration  ot 
law ;  but  all  pain  must  be  recuperative.  It  must  restore.  All  se- 
verities must  work  in  that  direction. 

The  developments  of  the  human  soul  are  ripe  or  crude,  as  they 
are  inspired,  guided  and  limited,  by  this  one  sovereign  quality.  And 
I  declare,  if  there  be  truth  or  understanding  in  the  revelation  of 
God,  that  which  governs  in  the  soul  of  God,  that  which  is  the  secret 
or  universal  inspiration  of  the  whole  vast  scheme  of  moral  force 
throughout  the  universe,  that  which  is  the  peculiar  and  distinct 
quality  of  Christianity,  that  which  is  to  enter  into  all  the  inflections 
and  administrations  of  Christianity,  that  Avhich  is  to  break  out  into 
public  procedure,  and  all  forms  of  administration,  is  the  quality  ol 
truth,  of  justice,  of  integrity,  of  rectitude,  of  righteousness,  in  love. 

Oh,  that  this  predominant  quality  had  root,  and  that  there  were 
a  benevolent  consideration  and  sympathy  for  those  Avho  are  afiected 
by  law  or  administration.  Oh  !  that  there  were  a  true  benevolent 
heart  toward  all  men. 

I  have  been  censured  for  saying  that  I  pitied  criminals.  I  have 
been  censured  for  saying  that  when  others  were  attempting  to  hunt 
out  and  run  down  men  who  were  flagrant  scoundrels,  I  had  toward 
these  very  men,  both  before  and  after  they  were  convicted,  a  true 
brotherly  feeling.  It  has  been  said  that  to  do  that  was  to  overthrow 
justice,  and  corrupt,  in  its  very  fountain,  the  element  of  truth.  J 
say  that  there  can  be  no  justice  without  such  a  feeling  as  that.  I 
say  that  whether  it  be  a  judge,  or  a  lawyer  before  the  judo-e  or  a 
committee  of  excellent  citizens,  no  man  can  hunt  or  run  down  the 
greatest  culprit  or  criminal  that  ever  lived,  leaving  out  of  mind  that 
he  is  a  creature  born  for  eternity,  loved  of  God,  died  for  by  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  sentient  to  sufi^ering  or  to  joy,  without  doing 
him  injustice.  No  man  can  forget  his  humanity,  and  then  adminis- 
ter toward  a  criminal  in  a  spirit  which  does  not  violate  law  and  re- 
ligion and  propriety. 

I  throw  this  shield  of  a  true  Christian  love  over  every  poor 
courtesan  that  walks  along  the  street.  While  I  abhor  the  vice  and 
the  crime,  nevertheless,  when  a  woman,  when  an  immortal,  Christ- 
bought,  sins,  I  think  of  her,  as  well  as  of  her  conduct.  I  throw  this 
shield  over  every  gambling  den ;  over  every  burrow  where  thieves 
lie  in  wait  for  their  victims.  I  throw  this  shield  even  over  every 
murderer,  over  every  savage.   While  I  abhor  their  crimes,  and  would 


124  80VEBE1G:STY  AND 

resist  them  by  all  appropriate  means,  the  moment  I  forget  to  lovo 
them,  I  do  not  know  how  to  be  just  toward  them  notwithstanding 
all  my  zeal  for  purity  and  for  truth  and  for  justice.  Though  I  give 
iny  body  to  be  burned  for  the  commonwealth^  and  have  not  love,  I  am 
nothing. 

No  man  is  fit  to  sit  on  the  bench  who  has  not  a  man's  heai-t  in 
him.  No  man  is  fit  to  urge  the  reformation  of  morals  who  has  not 
a  sympathetic  heart  in  him.  The  best  way  to  stop  wickedness,  is  to 
love  a  man  so  that  you  cannot  bear  to  see  him  wicked,  and  so  that 
you  not  only  restrain  him  by  violence,  but  are  willing,  if  need  be, 
to  suffer  for  him. 

Why,  that  a  man  who  does  not  think  about  these  things,  should 
rebuke  me  for  expressing  an  intense  Christian  sympathy  for  men 
whom  I  know  to  be  wicked,  and  who  must  be  restrained  and  pun- 
ished and  should  say  that  it  is  unchristian  and  unpatriotic — I  should 
not  have  been  surprised  at  it  in  Barbary,  or  in  ancient  Greece  or 
Rome ;  but  after  eighteen  hundred  years  of  teaching  that  God  made 
sacrifice  for  his  enemies,  without  waiting  for  them  to  rej^ent,  going 
before  them,  and  loving  them  in  sin,  and  dying  himself  rather  than 
that  they  should  die ;  after  eighteen  hundred  years  of  the  existence 
of  Christianity  in  the  world,  which  consists  of  the  administration  of 
forbearance  and  love  toward  men — after  so  long  a  time,  that  men 
should  rebuke  me  for  advocating  that  while  punishing  men  for 
crime  while  administering  justice  toward  them,  we  should  do  it  in 
the  spirit  of  true  love — this  does  surprise  me.  Why,  what  heathen- 
ism there  is  in  theology  yet !  What  heathenism  there  is  in  Chris- 
tianity vet !  We  need  another  Christ  to  die  to  teach  men  in  these 
modern  days  what  it  is  to  have  the  true  spirit  of  justice.  The  spirit 
of  naturalism  seems  to  blind  men  to  the  true  Gospel  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.     The  law  is, 

"Thou  Shalt  love  tbe  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy 
soul,  and  with  all  thy  strength,  and  with  all  thy  mind;  and  thy  neighbor 
as  thyself." 

The  declaration  is  that  benevolence  is  to  be  the  supreme  motive- 
power,  the  all-inspirmg  element,  in  our  dealings  with  our  fellow  men  ; 
and  that  there  is  nothing  good  in  intellection,  and  nothing  good  in 
conscience,  and  nothing  good  in  devotion  or  worship,  and  nothing 
o-ood  in  any  religious  service,  unless  it  has  at  the  root  the  savor  and 
sanctitying  influence  of  divine  sympathy  for  men.  And  it  is 
tauo-ht  that  there  is  to  be  this  sympathy  for  men  as  men,  whether 
they  are  right  or  wrong.  And  that  all  this  should  have  been  so 
hidden  that  men  do  not  understand  the  plainest  and  simplest  pre- 
sentation of  it,  surprises  me. 


TEUMANENCE  OF  LOVE.  125 

I  abhor  sin;  lout  I  have  tried  for  forty  years  to  learn  ho\v,  al> 
horrhig  sin,  to  love  the  sinner.  I  abhor  public  transgression,  that 
spreads  mischief  wide  abroad  on  every  side ;  but  I  have  striven  all 
my  life  long  to  bring  myself  into  such  a  frame  of  mind  that,  while  I 
abhorred  wickedness,  and  sought  its  punishment  so  far  as  it  was  for 
the  good  of  the  wicked  and  for  the  public  good,  I  should  not  for  a 
moment  forget  that  they  were  blood-bought,  every  one  of  them. 

Men  are  fighting  about  dogmas  and  ceremonies  and  modes  of 
worship;  men  are  ready  to  burn  their  fellow  men  for  differing  from 
them  in  their  theories  of  government  and  atonement ;  men  will  take 
their  brethren  by  the  throat,  and  say,  "  Pay  me  what  thou'owest, 
or  I  will  choke  you  to  death;"  and  yet,  the  sufferer,  who  is  the 
grand  Landmark  of  time  toward  which  we  are  all  steering,  stands 
saying,  "  I  gave  my  life  for  my  enemies."  While  we  were  yet  in 
our  sins,  Christ  died  for  us. 

"  Oh  !"  say  men,  "  when  we  see  evidence  of  repentance  in  trans- 
gressors; when  we  see  some  token  that  they  know  their  wrong,  and 
are  going  to  forsake  it,  we  can  show  them  sympathy;"  and  yet  Christ 
died  oh  the  cross,  by  the  spear,  and  with  a  crown  of  thorns  u2:)on  his 
head,  praying  for  his  crucifiers,  and  saying,  "  Father,  forgive  them : 
they  know  not  what  they  do."  Murderers  they  wei-e  ;  and  yet  he 
plead  for  their  forgiveness,  while  they  were  railing  and  scoffinp-  at 
his  feet.  MeuAvill  preach  sermons  about  this  love,  and  then  go  into 
life  and  forget  it,  and  treat  men  as  if  they  were  brutes. 

3.  But  still  more  striking  is  the  apostle's  final  statement,  that 
this  quality  of  sympathetic  benevolence  is  absolute  and  permanent 
This  divine  quality  of  nniversal  good-will — of  good-will  to  men  in 
masses  and  to  men  individually — is  the  highest  development ;  and 
it  touches  that  realm  which  never  changes. 

I  know  what  it  is  to  be  skeptical.  I  am  in  intimate  sympathetic 
relations  with  all  the  advanced  thoughts  of  the  time  in  Avhich  we 
live.  Little  is  printed  that  I  do  not  read  and  ponder.  And  to  say 
that  it  has  given  me  no  hours  of  darkness,  and  doubt,  and  distress, 
and  many  of  them,  would  be  to  bear  false  witness. 

There  is  one  Orient  to  me,  though,  which  never  fails  to  bring  re- 
lief. Although. I  do  not  understand  the  physical  administration  of 
things  in  this  world,  yet  I  see  that  there  is  an  economy  of  nature 
which  is  just  this  :  Do,  and  live ;  or  disoley,  and  die.  That  is  all 
that  the  face  of  nature  has  for  me.  I  see  the  administration  of 
material  law  in  this  Avorld  to  be  this  :  that  the  longest  paw,  and 
the  longest  tooth,  and  the  most  relentless  jaw,  devour  the  weak  and 
the  poor.  I  see  that  strength  prevails.  And  if  I  only  looked  on 
the  lower  forms  of  the  development  of  this  world,  I  should  despair. 


126  SO  YEEmGNTY  A  ND 

I  do  not  believe  that  tlie  benevolence  of  God  can  be  j)roved  by  nat- 
ural theology.  I  do  not  believe  that  you  can  make  out  an  argu- 
ment in  favor  of  it  in  nature.  The  spectacle  of  the  development  of 
the  lower  animals ;  the  constitution  of  things  by  which  one  race  of 
creatures  lives  on  another — by  which  the  ?pider  eats  the  fly,  and 
the  bird  eats  the  spider,  and  the  hawk  eats  that  other  bird,  and  the 
hawk  is  shot  by  the  boy ;  the  exhibition  of  the  universal  destruc- 
tiveness  which  pervades  nature — these  things  afford  no  evidence  of 
the  love  of  God.  It  is  as  much  as  one  can  do  to  get  along  with 
them.  And  to  believe  in  God  as  revealed  in  the  Bible,  while  lookintr 
Ujjon  the  outward  manifestations  in  this  world,  requires  faith. 

It  is  just  here  that  the  comfort  comes  in  to  me.  I  find  all  the 
way  through  the  Bible,  that  long  before  men  suspected  it  anywhere 
else  (yea,  men  hardly  know  it  yet),  there  was  a  revelation  from  God 
by  the  inspiration  of  men  of  old,  who  evidently  did  not  know  the 
full  substance  of  what  they  said,  that  God  is  higher  than  your 
thoughts,  better  than  anything  you  can  think  of,  ascribing  to  him 
the  qualities  of  justice  and  love  and  mercy.  And  yet,  the  world  is 
going  on,  and  it  will  go  thundering  on,  voices  in  the  ages  to  come 
still  saying,  "  God  is  love.  Mercy  shall  yet  triumph."  As  we  go 
along  down,  I  begin  to  hear  other  voices  testifying  that  a  new  king- 
dom is  coming.  This  is  the  old  primal  kingdom ;  but  there  is 
another  one  approaching.  There  is  to  be  a  second  stage  of  evolu- 
tion. And  still  later  down,  other  voices  come  flocking  on,  and  cry- 
ing, "  A  new  life  !"  And  what,  by  and  by,  in  the  fullness  of  time, 
that  life  is  to  be,  Jesus  came  to  show.  And  from  that  time  there  has 
been  an  opening  up  of  tliis  new  kingdom.  While  nature  was  all  the 
time  showing  force,  grace  was  showing  good  will.  One  was  com- 
manding and  wreaking  penalty ;  and  the  other  was  persuading, 
gently  instructing,  winning,  wooing.  Superinduced  upon  the  old 
stock,  I  see  the  graft  of  the  new  tree  of  life,  that  bears,  not  thorns 
nor  acerb  fruits,  but  leaves  of  that  tree  of  life  which  are  for  the 
healing  of  the  nations — the  new  life  in  Christ  Jesus  born  by  the 
Spirit  into  human  life. 

This  is  the  higher  course  of  nature.  The  lower  and  rudimentary 
course  was  violence,  strength,  much  suffering,  and  great  cruelty  ; 
but  in  history,  in  the  new  era,  instead  of  practising  self-denials  and 
making  sacrifice  and  suffering  rather  than  that  others  should  suftei-, 
there  is  opened  up  a  real  kingdom  of  God — the  new  kingdom — the 
new  heaven  and  the  new  earth  in  Avhich  dwell  righteousness. 

In  connection  with  this  new  kingdom  is  this  declaration  :  That 
the  supreme  motive-power  of  the  higher  life,  of  the  invisible  king- 
dom  of   God,   in    the  consecrated    abodes  of    heaven,   is    sympa- 


FEBMANENCE  OF  LOVE.  127 

Ihetic  kindness,  benevolent  well-wishing,  with  all  the  being  that  we 
have. 

The  application  of  this  is,  to  me,  extremely  comforting.  In  the 
first  place,  in  common  with  hundreds  and  thousands  of  others,  I 
have  seen  many  of  the  dogmas  of  theology  shaken  from  their  places. 
I  have  been  perplexed  to  know  how  to  put  in  this,  and  that,  and  the 
other  link  of  the  accredited  systems  of  thinking.  I  have  seen  many 
young  men  go  by  the  board,  because  they  could  not  manage  their 
theology.  They  have  sought  literary  Avork  or  business  pursuits  be- 
cause they  could  not  wear  the  old  theological  armor.  And  I  have 
had  my  own  trials,  too.  But  this  thought  has  always  held  me  up  : 
Whatever  may  be  the  theories  of  attribute  or  administration,  one 
thing  I  know  certainly,  and  that  is,  that  love  is  the  real  marrow  of 
the  universe,  and  that  if  I  work  in  the  spirit  of  love,  if  I  labor  to 
produce  the  fruits  of  love  among  men,  if  I  give  the  power  of  my 
life  for  building  men  up  in  righteousness,  I  cannot  be  far  from  the 
right  path.  I  may  not  be  able  to  teach  the  philosophy  or  the  love 
of  sympathy  ;  but  the  whole  economy  I  know  is  to  inspire  men  with 
this  intense  desire  to  build  up  their  fellow  men  in  truth,  and  purity, 
and  goodness.  If  you  touch  that,  you  have  touched  the  main  thing. 
Having  touched  that,  you  cannot  be  very  heretical.  Such  are  the 
articulations  of  truth,  that  ho  who  works  for  the  ends  which  God  is 
working  for,  cannot  be  far  from  the  channels  in  which  God  is 
working. 

And  if  thei-e  be  any  of  you  whose  theology  docs  not  fit  you,  and 
who  cannot  get  along  with  it— well,  get  along  without  it.  Work 
for  men.  You  are  far  enough  advanced,  now,  in  the  history  of  na- 
tions, to  do  a  vast  deal  of  work  for  men  without  being  hampered  by 
this  ccclesiasticism  or  that  dogmatism.  Not  that  I  would  speak 
contemptuously  of  these  things,  except  when  they  are  despotic.  I 
say  that  they  are  of  use ;  but  v/hen  they  undertake  to  arrogate  to 
themselves  the  right  to  dictate  to  my  conscience,  or  faith,  I  tread 
them  under  foot.  I  will  not  be  subject  to  them,  not  for  an  hour; 
but  if  they  say  that  they  are  instruments,  I  do  not  object  to  them. 
If  they  know  their  proper  place,  and  keep  it,* that  is  all  right; 
but  they  shall  not  despotize  over  me.  They  are  my  servants,  and 
not  my  masters.     I  will  not  bow  down  to  them,  or  serve  them. 

And  I  say  to  men  who  are  not  in  agreement  with  the  regnant 
systems  of  theology.  You  do  not  need  to  leave  the  ministry  ;  you 
do  not  need  to  leave  the  pulpit ;  you  do  not  need  to  leave  the  church 
of  Christ.  It  is  not  essential  that  you  sliould  harmonize  with  all 
the  points  of  the  creed.  If  your  heart  is  right  Avith  God,  and  your 
"whole  life  breathes  out  toward  men  the  spirit  of  unquestioned  love; 


128  SOVHEmGNTi  AFD 

if,  examining  yourselves  Inwardly,  you  know  that  the  thing  for  which 
you  live  is  to  love  men  better,  and  to  build  them  up  in  love  in  every 
form,  then  you  are  essentially  Christian,  and  you  are  essentially  ia 
the  possession  of  Christ's  truth. 

I  notice,  also,  another  class  of  men  with  whose  condition  I  sym- 
pathize. They  have  thrown  off  all  belief  in  the  Bible.  I  am  sorry 
for  them.  *The  older  I  grow,  the  more  precious  this  Book  becomes 
to  me.  I  thank  God  for  all  he  put  into  the  Bible,  and  I  thank 
God  for  all  that  has  been  put  into  it  since. 

When  the  carpenter  built  my  father's  house,  and  gave  up  the 
key,  that  house  was  not  half  builded.  When  my  father  and  mother 
moved  into  it  there  Avas  something  else  added  which  no  carpenter 
could  have  put  there.  And  when  the  first  child  Avas  born,  there  was 
something  else  put  there :  not  merely  the  child,  but  all  the  sweet 
thoughts  and  fancies,  all  the  labors  of  love,  all  the  tender  care,  all 
the  ten  thousand  family  enjoyments,  that  fell  out  in  consequence  of 
its  presence  there.  And  as  brothers  and  sisters  were  added  to  the 
band  (for  God,  as  usual,  blessed  the  ministerial  household  under  my 
lather's  roof,  and  we  were  a  troop)  ;  as  child  after  child  came,  each 
peculiarity,  each  taste,  each  individual  element,  gave  a  new  fresco 
to  the  Avails.  The  floors  Avere  poorly  clad  Avith  carpets,  and  the 
house  Avns  scantily  provided  Avith  furniture  ;  but  rich  Avas  the  dwell- 
ing Avitli  that  Avhich  no  upholsterer  could  make,  and  wliich  no  cai*- 
pentcr  could  frame.  It  AA^as  the  family  life  of  the  old  mansion.  And 
to-day  the  chimney  may  smoke  for  aught  I  know  (it  did  when  I  Avas 
a  boy),  the  Avind  may  Avhistle  through  the  crevices  on  the  north 
side,  for  aught  I  knoAV  (it  did  Avhen  I  Avas  a  boy)  ;  but  that  house  is 
more  precious  to  me  than  any  house  built  of  marble  and  ornamented 
Avith  gold  could  be.     It  Avas  Avhat  my  father  a'ad  mother  left  me. 

This  Bible  is  God's  house.  Here,  in  this  Book,  is  Avhere  saints 
haA'e  lived.  Here  is  where  holy  men  have  lived.  Here  is  Avhere  men 
in  great  distress  have  learned  how  A^aliantly  to  endure  and  to  achieve. 
The  Avorld's  best  life  has  become  associated  with  this  Bible.  Here 
is  my  OAvn  personal  history  ;  and  here  is  yours,  if  you  have  been 
Christ-bred  from  your  youth  up.  This  Book  is  filled  full  of  dear 
associations.  Here  are  passages  that  I  Avalked  through  AA^hen  my 
first-burn  died.  Here  is  Avhere  I  found  comfort  AA^hen  I  Avas  in  great 
distress  and  torment.  Here  is  Avhere  I  first  saAV  the  Star  of  Beth- 
lehem. Here  is  Avhcre  I  first  gained  some  conception  of  the  divine 
nature  and  government.  This  Bible  is  full  of  God's  thoughts.  Its 
contents  are  so  interwoven  Avith  my  OAvn  feelings  and  experiences 
that  I  might  almost  say  that  I  have  Avritten  the  Bible  over  again  for 
myself,  ^s  years  pass  by,  the  more  I  love  the  Bible.     I  am  no*  so 


PEBMANENGE  OF  LOVE,  1 29 

stnno-cnt  in  regard  to  the  theories  of  inspiration;  hut  my  heart 
clino-s  to  this  Book.  It  is  to  me  the  Book  above  all  hooks.  And 
if  I  were  to  be  sent  away  on  a  desolate  island,  and  1  were  permitted 
to  take  but  one  book,  sad  would  be  my  parting  with  one  and  another 
favorite  author ;  but,  after  all,  I  should  take  the  Bible  in  preference 
to  any  other  book. 

I  am  sorry  to  see  men  read  Herbert  Spencer,  and  Huxley,  and 
Tyndall,  as  though  they  were  the  end  of  the  law.  I  read  them,  too  ; 
and  I  believe  much  that  they  say.  A  great  many  things  in  their 
works  will  be  found  to  be  a  part  of  the  truth.  But  in  order  to  get 
the  truth  which  they  contain  I  do  not  propose  to  forego  the  Bible. 
And  I  say  to  every  young  man  and  every  young  woman  who 
are  taking  what  are  called  "  the  new  views,"  It  is  not  necessary  that 
you  should  forsake  your  fathers'  God,  nor  the  mansion-house  of  the 
human  souk  This  is  not  Egypt.  You  are  not  going  out  of  bondage 
into  the  promised  land  when  for  the  sake  of  "  new  views"  you 
abandon  these  old  views.  For  this  Book  is  what  it  declares  itself 
to  be  : 

"  All  Scrlplure  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God,  and  is  profitable  for  doc- 
trine, for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruction  in  rigbteousness  ;  that  the 
man  of  God  may  be  perfect,  thoroughly  furnished  unto  all  good  works." 

Here  is  a  Book  that  undertakes  to  give  you  an  idea  of  how  to 
live.  You  cannot  get  a  better  notion  of  life  in  Huxley,  nor  any- 
where else.  There  is  nothing  better  than  that  which  is  given  in  the 
Bible,  There  the  way  in  which  men  are  to  live  is  laid  down  so  plain, 
in  all  forms,  throughovit  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New,  that  the 
wayfaring  man,  though  a  fool,  need  not  err  therein. 

And  yet,  I  feel  great  sympathy  for  those  of  you  who  feel  that 
you  have  floated  ofi'from  the  Bible.  I  am  sorry  for  you.  But  it  is 
not  necessary  that  you  should  run  into  stark  infidelity  and  unbelief. 
You  say  that  historic  Christianity  does  not  seem  to  you  to  stand  on 
any  evidence.  But  it  is  not  historic  Christianity  that  is  now  under 
consideration.  It  is  real  Christianity.  And  that  is  declared  to  be, 
loving  God  %oith  all  your  heart,  and  soul,  and  strength,  and  mind, 
and  your  neighbor  as  yourself.  The  great  doctrine  of  love,  which 
I  have  been  preaching  to  yon  this  morning,  is  declared  to  be  the 
heart  and  substance  of  Christianity.  Do  not  you  believe  that  ?  Is 
not  that  true,  all  the  world  over  ?  As  much  those  who  dispute 
religion  as  those  Avho  live  in  it,  are  moved  nearer  and  nearer  to  this 
truth  of  ages,  that  the  constructive  force  of  love  is  to  be  the  great 
power  of  the  futiu'e.  This  is  that  toward  which  we  are  all  going. 
And  why  should  men  forsake  their  fathers'  God  when  he  declares 
himself  to  be  love  ?  Wliy  should  they  forsake  Jesus,  who  came  to 
interpret  love  in  every  human  form  ?   And  why  should  they  forsake 


130  so  YEEEIGNTY  AND 

the  word  of  God,  which  is  a  practical  Book,  and  which  oc<;upie8 
itself  in  showing  men  how  to  live  in  this  supreme  spirit  of  love. 

Work  for  your  fellow  men.  Educate  the  ignorant.  Recall  the 
wandering.  Build  up  those  who  are  broken  down.  Be  patient  with 
those  who  are  out  of  the  way.  Go  to  your  dissipated  neighbor,  not 
only  to  warn  him  and  exhort  him,  but  to  carry  his  burden.  Hold 
him  up.  Labor  for  him.  Suffer  for  him.  Do  all  that  is  in  your 
power  to  save  him.  Die  for  your  child,  rather  than  that  he  should 
be  cast  away.  Live  for  those  who  are  not  worthy  to  live.  Give 
yourself  and  your  heart's  blood  for  those  who  need  succor.  Then 
you  will  come  into  such  a  sympathetic  relation  to  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  that  you  will  say,  with  an  enthusiasm  of  faith,  "  I  know  that 
my  Redeemer  liveth."  Once  do  the  things  which  Christ  did  ;  once 
live  that  high,  supi-eme  life  of  sympathetic  benevolence,  and  nothing 
will  take  you  away  from  this  precious  Biography  of  love. 

There  is  but  one  other  application  that  I  will  make,  though  I 
have  several  others  marked. 

If  this  be  a  true  doctrine  ;  if  this  be  the  revelation  of  Chris- 
tianity ;  if  this  universal,  potential,  reconstructive  force  of  love  is 
God's  charter  ;  if  it  is  the  principle  on  which  God  is  administering  ; 
if  it  is  the  fountain  of  Christian  character  ;  if  on  this  is  to  be  tested 
all  the  developments  of  justice,  and  truth,  and  purity,  and  duty, 
then,  of  course,  Ave  know  where  the  great  stream  of  force  is  flowing. 
God's  moral  administration  in  this  world  must  be  in  those  lines. 

It  throws  an  interpreting  light  on  the  future.  We  know  to  what 
we  are  going. 

And  one  other  thing — it  throws  a  great  light  and  a  great  com- 
fort upon  those  who  are  out  of  the  way.  There  are  hundreds  of  per- 
sons that  are  doing  wrong,  and  that  suffer  a  thousand  times  more 
than  they  enjoy.  There  are  men  that  drink,  who  would  give  all  the 
world  if  they  could  break  away  from  the  fascination  of  the  intoxi- 
cating cup.  Thei*e  are  men  who  lead  illicit  lives,  and  who  suffer 
much,  and  who  yearn  to  escape  from  the  snare  in  which  they  are 
caught,  and  pray  God  to  release  them  from  their  bondage.  Prayers 
come  out  of  strange  places,  often.  To  those  who  look  superficially 
upon  society,  men  are  a  bundle  of  inconsistencies,  there  is  so  much 
that  is  good  and  so  much  that  is  bad  in  them.  And  many  of  those 
who  have  gone  wrong  would  come  back  to  the  right  if  public  senti- 
ment were  not  so  cold  and  stern.  Men  take  very  little  pains  to  keep 
their  fellow  men  from  falling  ;  and  when  they  are  once  down,  how 
censorious,  how  bitter,  how  suspicious  they  are  toward  them  !  How 
much  v.'e  throw  in  the  way  of  men  Avho  are  attempting  to  go  back 
again  to  virtue  !    If  a  man  has  stolen,  there  may  be  more  good  than 


PERMANENCE  OF  LOVE.  131 

bad  in  him  ;  and  yet  how  hard  it  is  for  him,  having  lost  his  position 
in  society,  to  get  a  foot-hold  again  !  How  few  will  sympathize  with 
him  and  take  him  into  their  employ  !  Hoav  few  there  are  among 
Christ's  men,  who  are  willing  to  give  themselves  for  their  fellows 
who  have  gone  wrong  !  How  hard  it  is  for  one  who  has  stumbled  in 
life  to  recover  himself,  under  the  circumstances  ! 

Oh,  troubled  soul,  higher  than  the  church,  higher  than  God's 
ministers,  is  God.  And  his  love,  his  tenderness,  and  his  pity  are 
ineffable.  He  knows  your  sorrow,  because  he  knows  your  sin.  And 
sin  in  his  sight  is  a  thousand  times  blacker  than  it  is  in  your  sight 
when  you  look  at  it  in  your  bitterest  hours.  The  wickedness 
of  your  heart  you  have  never  begun  to  understand.  But  there  is  a 
Heart  of  love  above  all  hearts,  that  would  not  have  you  die  ;  that 
would  restore  you  ;  that  would  lift  you  out  of  your  sin.  If  you  dare 
not  go  to  man ;  if  you  have  no  mother  to  go  to  ;  if  you  have  no 
trusted  friend  to  whom  you  can  go,  then  confess  your  sins  to  God. 
Begin  again,  and  be  assured  that  there  is  a  God  who  administers  hTs 
love  in  this  world  so  that  penitents  shall  have  a  chance.  There  is  a 
chance  for  the  recovery  of  a  man  who  has  gone  wrong.  If  there  is 
no  strength  in  you,  and  you  trust  in  God,  and  cry  out  to  him,  living 
as  seeing  Him  who  is  invisible,  you  may  be  restored.  And  even  if 
it  be  a  struggle  that  goes  with  you  to  the  hour  of  death,  you  will 
be  rewarded  in  the  eternal  world  for  all  the  suffering  that  you  have 
had  here.  The i.  endeavors  that  you  make  here  to  live  Christianly 
will  be  crowned  with  victory  there. 

I  preach  to  you  the  love  of  God.  I  am  not  making  an  appeal  to 
good-natured  indifference.  '  I  preach  the  love  of  a  God  who  is  full 
of  truth,  and  justice,  and  righteousness,  and  who  seeks,  with  penal- 
ties, to  make  you  come  to  truth  and  justice  and  righteousness.  God 
so  loves  you  that  he  chastises  you  ;  and  all  his  chastisements  and 
penalties  are  laid  upon  you  as  his  spns,  that  he  may  bring  you  out 
of  your  transgression,  and  prepare  'you  foi*  the  kingdom  of  light, 
where  tears  stop  because  sin  stops ;  wliexe  we  shall  go  out  fio  more; 
where  we  shall  be  as  the  sons  of  God.      ^ 

What  it  all  means  I  do  not  know.  ^ 

"  It  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be;  but  we  know  that  when  he 
shall  appear  we  shall  be  like  him." 

^And  in  that  vision.let  us  labor  on,  hope  on,  helg  one  another  on 
' — ^help,  and  destroy  not, 


132  SOYMBmQNTY  AND 

PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

Since  "we  have  known  thee,  O  Lord,  thou  Interpreter  of  the  Father,  we 
have  learned  to  come  boldly  to  the  throne  of  grace  to  obtain  mercy  and  help 
in  time  of  need.  Our  fears  have  often  scourged  us.  Our  consciences  have 
risen  up  against  us,  and  have  built  in  our  thought  a  judgment-seat  where 
thou  didst  sit  to  condemn  and  destroy  us.  But  over  all  the  fantasies  of  our 
fear  has  risen  a  revelation  of  thy  truth,  that  God  is  love;  that  he  desires  not 
the  death  of  any  one,  but  rather  that  each  should  turn  and  live.  All  that 
sweet  history  of  thine,  but  little  of  which  hath  been  recorded — we  read  it, 
how  often,  with  blinded  eye;  but  in  the  time  of  our  deep  distress,  with  what 
strange  insight  do  we  read  it!  The  love  of  God ;  the  mercy  of  God ;  the  draw- 
ings of  his  heart ;  the  longings  and  desires  which  transcend  parental  affection 
— how  do  these  shine  out !  How  do  we  behold  walking  in  spotless  integrity 
Him  that  rebuked  the  learning,  the  justice  and  the  truth  of  men,  and  who, 
turning  to  the  poor,  and  the  outcast,  and  the  unfriended,  and  the  courtesan, 
and  the  thief,  threw  over  them  all  the  light  and  hope  of  sweet  persuasion 
which  drew  them  after  him  ■  How  do  we  behold  thee  as  against  the  back- 
grouud  of  nature,  obscured  and  darkened,  where  the  law  of  force  brutally 
reigns,  and  where  the  strong  oppress  the  weak,  and  where  justice  rolls  and 
rolls,  as,  in  darkness  and  storm  the  waves  of  the  sea  smite  one  against  an- 
other I  How,  at  such  times,  do  we  behold  Jesus  walking  on  the  sea,  and  say- 
ing. Be  not  afraid ;  it  is  I. 

Standing  over  against  all  these  truths  of  outward  life,  is  the  new  life  of 
love ;  the  new  view  of  God,  as  a  being  of  universal  benevolence;  and  the  new 
life  of  man.  Sacrifice,  nature  has  demanded ;  self-sacrifice,  grace.  We  be- 
hold all  things  now  moving  according  to  a  new  principle  of  divine  love.  And 
all  the  world  are  beginning  to  find  the  light.  And  as  in  far  distant  lands, 
North,  when  winter  has  drearily  held  in  bondage  the  long  and  dark  days,  at 
last  the  sun  begins  to  come  and  shine  dimly,  and  then  shows  itself  a  little 
above  the  horizon,  and  then  stands  full  risen  with  healing  in  his  beams ;  so 
we  have  been  locked  fast  in  our  frigid  fears,  and  have  seemed  to  be  in  an 
eternal  night,  until  the  dawn  of  knowlege,  at  first  but  little,  and  then  with 
growing  and  growing  light,  as  of  a  star,  and  finally  as  of  the  sun  which  swal- 
lowed up  the  stars,  has  come  to  us.  The  Sun  of  righteousness  has  come  to  us 
with  healing  in  his  beams.  And  we  behold  God,  transcendent  in  power  and 
in  majesty,  full  of  truth,  and  full  of  justice,  and  full  of  purity,  himself  gov- 
erning to  bring  to  pass  the  counsels  of  his  will  which  are  for  infinite  goodness 
and  infinite  happiness.  And  though  we  cannot  understand  thee  any  more 
than  insects  can  understand  us;  although  we  are  as  worms  before  thee,  yet 
we  feel,  even  while  we  do  not  understand.  There  is  wafted  to  us  a. sense  of 
divine  graciousness  and  goodness.  Thy  kingdom,  which  shall  come  when  the 
earth  shall  have  rolled  away,  aud  all  its  burdens  shall  have  sunk  under  the 
waves  of  time  forever ;  that  new  kingdom,  in  which  shall  dwell  righteous- 
ness, and  in  which  the  light  aud  the  joy  shall  be  as  the  face  of  God,  when  thy 
heart  shall  stand  for  the  sun.  aud  for  the  moon,  and  for  the  stars;  that  king- 
dom to  which  thy  children  shall  be  translated,  and  in  which  they  shall  bo 
blessed — we  are  drawing  near  to  it.  We  know  it  by  the  warmth  and  the 
Fweet  odors  which  are  Avaf  ted  to  us.  As  they  who  navigate  the  sea  know 
that  the  land  is  near,  by  the  odors  which  come  to  them  uijon  the  air,  so  we  at 
times  have  a  revelation  of  the  kingdom  of  God — that  great  kingdom,  un- 
known among  men;  that  great  kingdom,  so  slow  in  d3veloping  on  earth; 
that  great  kingdom,  where  restored  natures,  built  up  in  righteousness,  shall 
dwell  together  in  blessedness  forever.  The  eye  hath  not  seen  it,  the  ear  hath 
not  heard  it;  nor  should  we  understand  it  if  we  both  heard  and  saw  it.  But 
we  are  carried  toward  it.    Something  in  us  is  like  it.    Some  strange  thoughts 


pi:bma  nbnce  of  lo  ve.  133 

and  feelings  betoken  it.  It  is  coming.  Into  it  have  gone,  Oti,  how  many ! 
Blessed  be  thy  name,  the  earth  lias  not  been  altogether  barren.  Tbou  hast 
reaped  harvests ;  and  thou  wilt  yet  reap  more.  Into  that  great  and  blessed 
estate  have  gone  forth  from  our  side  not  a  few.  We  have  sent  our  dear  and 
precious  children  there.  We  have  sent  brothers  and  sisters.  We  have  sent 
there  the  companions  of  our  life  whose  going  was  as  the  desolating  and  the 
sacking  of  our  hearts.  But  we  have  not  lost  them.  They  are  but  just  before 
us,  hidden  by  the  brightness  in  which  they  dwell.  And  we  are  following 
after,  mutely  calling  for  our  children  and  for  our  friends ;  and  we  are  draw- 
ing near  to  them  as  we  call.  We  are  approaching  that  great  unexplored  and 
invisible  realm.  And  it  is  more  to  us  than  all  other  things,  that  we  be  counted 
worthy  to  enter.  We  are  glad  that  so  many  shall  go  in  with  crowns  whom 
we  have  known  only  with  dust  and  ashes  on  their  head.  We  rejoice  that  so 
many  shall  go  in.  walking  strong  as  victor;:!,  who  have  been  cast  down  and 
trodden  under  foot  in  this  life.  The  last  shall  be  iirst.  The  lowest  shall  bo 
highest.  The  least  shall  be  greatest.  The  most  despised  shall  be  the  most 
honored.  Joy  shall  go  forth,  and  songs  shall  pour  out,  and  a  royal  and  a 
choral  entrance  shall  be  given  to  those  who  shall  at  last  go  home  to  theheav- 
enty  land.  We  would  draw  back  none  who  are  there,  safe  from  danger  and 
from  temptation.  We  would  not  urge  our  own  steps ;  thy  will  is  better  than 
our  jadgment;  but  when  thou  wilt  have  us  go,  we  shall  be  ready.  As  long 
as  thou  thinkest  it  best  for  us  to  stay,  we  will  wait  patiently  ;  but  when  thou 
dost  give  us  permission  to  go  home  we  shall  go  gladly.  And  grant,  we  pray 
thee,  that  we  may  learn  something  of  the  temper  which  befits  the  heavenly 
estate.  May  we  learn  something  of  those  conditions  of  mind  in  which  we 
should  live  here  upon  earth.  May  we  have  from  day  to  day  the  heavenly 
disposition.  May  we  be  filled  with  tenderness,  and  with  gentleness,  and  with 
sympathy,  and  with  yearnings  for  the  welfare  of  our  fellow  men.  May  we 
seek  by  the  truth  to  build  them  up.  May  we,  as  God  does,  emiiloy  both 
pleasure  and  pain,  both  fear  and  hope,  both  reward  and  penalty,  for  their 
good.  May  we  work  evermore  by  that  divine  instrument,  the  Spirit  of  God, 
which  is  the  Spirit  of  love. 

Grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  all  those  who  are  in  thy  presence  this  morning 
may  have  the  evidence  that  they  are  children  of  God.  May  those  who  have 
never  named  thy  name,  nor  thought  of  religion,  feel  how  rich  is  their  God ; 
how  abundant  he  is  in  mercy.  May  they  understand  that  although  he  is 
just,  and  although  he  maketh  requisition  sternly,  yet  he  is  dealing  with  them 
for  their  good,  often  in  the  utmost  severity.  Grant  that  men  may  wake  up 
to  a  knowledge  of  their  treasure  in  God ;  to  a  conception  of  the  joy  that  is 
theirs  by  inheritance.  Grant,  we  beseech  of  thee,  that  on  every  side  there 
may  be  more  and  more  rousing  up  to  a  spiritual  sense  of  the  invisible  realm 
which  girds  around  the  visible  one. 

We  pray,  O  Lord  our  God,  that  thou  wilt  make  thy  people  strong  for 
righteousness.  Bless  the  labors  of  their  hands.  Bless  the  means  of  succor 
which  thou  hast  inspired  them  to  give.  Bless  the  thoughts  and  desires  with 
which  (hey  minister.  Wilt  thou  grant  that  they  may  spring  from  purified 
hearts.  Wilt  thou  bring  thy  life  near  to  them,  that  they  may  be  able  to  live 
near  their  fellow  men.  May  they  live  in  the  sight  of  heaven,  that  they  may 
know  the  true  colors  of  the  things  therein.  Grant  that  more  and  more  thy 
ssrvants  may  be  clotiaed  with  bolder  zeal;  with  unspeakable  joy;  with  that 
peace  which  belongs  to  thy  people.  And  prepare  their  hearts,  we  beseech 
of  thee,  for  thy  work.  Teach  those  who  are  to  teach.  Be  with  all  our 
schools  and  Bible  classes.  Be  with  our  missionaries.  Be  with  all  those  who 
seek  the  reformation  of  morals.  Grant  that  they  may  be  filled  with  gentle- 
ness, as  well  as  with  boldness.  May  they  have  discreet  wisdom.  And  we 
beseech  of  thee  that  thy  blessing  may  rest  upon  us  all. 


134         SO  YEBBIGNTY  AND  PBBMANENCE  OF  LO  VE 

Ble3s  all  thy  dear  churches,  and  all  thy  dear  servants  that  minister  in 
thein  ;  and  may  thy  Gospel  be  preached  with  more  and  more  saving  power. 
May  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel  be  more  and  more  felt  in  all  the  churches.  We 
pray  that  they  may  be  united  in  things  that  are  good.  May  divisions  cease 
among  them.  May  they  learn  to  see  eye  to  eye,  and  to  labor  in  God.  We 
pray  that  those  who  worls  in  thy  cause  may  go  forward  inspired  of  God. 
And  may  the  day  speedily  come  when  there  shall  be  over  all  outward 
churches  the  one  dear  invisible  church,  formed  of  all  good  men  who  have 
their  faces  set  toward  the  New  Jerusalem. 

We  pray  for  all  this  land.  Especially,  to-day,  we  pray  for  those  who  are 
desolate— the  great  army  of  sufferers — those  around  about  whom  have 
been  the  flame  and  the  darkness.  We  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  he  a 
God  of  mercy  to  them.  Comfort  those  who  are  in  afBictions  and  bereave- 
ments; those  who  are  sick;  those  who  are  appointed  unto  death;  and  those 
who  have  seen  the  wreck  of  their  worldly  hopes.  We  beseech  of  thee  that 
their  courage  may  not  fail  them,  and  that  they  may  come  out  of  the  fire 
purified  as  gold  seven  times  refined. 

And  we  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  continue  to  bless  this  nation  by 
keeping  the  heart  of  sympathy  open.  May  this  great  opportunity  for  good 
be  an  education  to  this  whole  people  in  true  benevolence  and  sympathy. 

We  pray  for  the  poor.  We  pray  for  the  ignorant.  We  pray  for  all  those 
who  have  gone  forth  from  homes  of  comfort  to  make  their  abode  among 
the  uncultured  and  the  ignorant,  to  be  contemned  and  outcast  for  their 
labors  of  love.  Let  there  be  to  them  a  sweet  sphere  of  peace  in  which  they 
shall  walk  guarded  of  God,  and  as  children  of  God.  Bless,  we  beseech  of 
thee,  those  who,  though  in  humble  relations,  are  still  seeking  to  do  a  little 
good.  Encourage  them.  May  they  remember  that  the  mite  of  the  widow 
was  more  than  the  treasure  of  the  rich.  And  if  they  do  what  they  can,  may 
they  be  sure  that  God  smiles,  and  will  bless. 

Build  up  the  nations  of  the  earth.  We  pray  for  them  as  for  our  own  nation. 
We  pray  that  all  influences  which  are  working  against  their  prosperity  may 
be  destroyed ;  and  that  all  influences  which  shall  tend  to  build  them  up  may 
he  multiplied.  May  wars  cease,  and  the  ambitions  and  passions  which 
kindle  war.  May  the  gracious  truth  of  God's  love  and  benevolence  more 
and  more  spread  throughout  the  earth,  and  become  the  public  sentiment  of 
the  globe.  May  ignorance  and  superstition  flee  away,  and  all  mankind  at 
last  rise  up  into  the  estate  and  blessedness  of  the  sons  of  God. 

And  to  thy  name,  Father,  Son  and  Spirit,  shall  be  the  praise  for  ever  and 
ever.    Am&n, 


VIII. 

Physical  Hindrances  in  Spiritual 

Life. 


INVOCATION. 


We  draw  near  to  thee  again,  our  Father,  in  the  accustomed  place,  asking 
for  that  blessing  without  which  we  are  poor,  and  in  need  of  all  things. 
From  thy  life,  grant  us  the  food  of  life.  For  all  thy  providences,  by  which 
we  are  sustained  in  outward  things,  we  render  thee  thanks.  We  come  now 
for  that  food  which  shall  sustain  the  inward  life.  Quicken  us  by  thy  spirit 
in  our  affections,  and  in  our  faith,  that  we  may  behold  visions  of  invisi- 
ble things,  and  take  hold  of  realities  far  above  those  which  dazzle  us  upon 
earth.  And  grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  in  all  the  services  of  the  sanctuary, 
thy  heart  may  take  pleasure.  Bless  us  in  the  commimion  of  prayer  ;  in 
the  fellowship  of  song  ;  in  the  reading  and  speaking  from  thy  Word  ;  in 
all  our  meditations;  in  our  joy  one  with  another.  Bless  us  in  our  homes 
this  day,  and  in  all  the  hours  of  the  Sabbath.  We  ask  it  for  Christ's  sake. 
Amen. 


PHYSICAL  HINDRANCES 
IN  SPIRITUAL  LIFE. 


"Watch  and  pray,  that  ye  enter  not  into  temptation :  the  spirit,  indeed, 
is  willing,  but  the  flesh  is  weak."— Matt.  XXVI.,  41. 


These  passionate  words  were  spoken  in  the  hour  of  our  Saviour's 
great  anguish  in  the  garden.  Although  he  had  a  right  to  the  sym- 
pathy and  the  comforting  presence  of  his  disciples,  for  whom  he  had 
done  so  much,  and  around  whom  he  had  just  cast  such  words  of 
love  as  wei'e  never  uttered  before  nor  since,  by  one  to  another,  yet 
when  he  came  into  the  strait  and  anguish  of  this  preliminary  trial, 
they  fell  off,  as  afterwards  they  were  more  disgracefully  to  do  ;  and 
while  he  was  in  prayer  they  fell  asleep.  Returning  to  them,  there 
was  no  impatience — not  even  reproach.  Out  of  his  own  extreme 
suffering  and  sorrow,  he  found  thoughts  of  compassion  and  gentle- 
ness and  excuse  for  them.  He  exhorted  them  to  watch  and  pray 
lest  they  should  enter  into  temj)tation  ;  but  then  he  said,  "  The 
spirit  is  willing  ;  your  better  part  consents ;  but  the  flesh  draws  you 
down ;  and  you  fail,  not  from  the  want  of  right  inteution,  but  from 
that  hindrance.'' 

It  is  not,  it  seems  to  me,  an  undue  strain  upon  the  words  watch 
and  jt?ray  to  suppose  that  they  stand  connected  with  the  two  sides 
of  human  nature :  that  prayer  and  the  sj)irit,  tliat  watching  and  the 
flesh,  were  conjoined  in  the  Saviour's  mind,  and  that  here  we  have  an 
instance  of  his  exhortation  to  that  labor  which  every  Christian  in 
this  life  must  perform — namely,  the  pursuit  of  godliness,  by  the  ap- 
plication to  the  secular  and  tlie  spiritual  parts  of  his  being,  of  the 
peculiar  and  proper  stimulants  which  belong  to  the  nature  of 
each. 

Our  Saviour,  not  here  in  terms,  but  throughout  his  teaching,  re- 
cognized a  life  in  man  that  aims  at  the  highest  excellence,  and 
taught  that  it  must  be  compassed  in  two  spheres  cotemporaneously. 

Sunday  Morning,  Oct.  29, 1871.    Lesson:   I.  Thess.  1 -34.    Hymns  (Plymouth  Col- 
lection) :  Nos.  180,  503,  893. 


138  PHYSICAL  HINDBANGE8 

As  the  root  of  the  ti*ee  is  buried  in  the  soil,  while  the  top  is  em- 
bosomed in  the  sunlight,  and  .the  tree  grows  by  a  double  force — by 
the  things  that  are  above  it,  and  by  the  things  that  are  beneath  it ; 
BO  man  grows  by  the  top  in  the  luminous  spiritual  ether,  and  by  the 
body  in  contact  with  this  world,  and  by  the  whole  apparatus 
of  natural  laws.  And  no  man  can  live  the  Christian  life  successfully 
who  does  not  conform  to  both  spheres  and  their  ordinances.  Success 
requires  that  we  have  divine  help  from  both  of  them,  or  through 
them  both,  and  in  each  a  help  that  is  peculiar  to  it.  In  the  bodily 
sphere,  we  must  watch  and  look  out  for  that  which  is  needful  to 
that  sphere.  In  the  moral  sphere  we  must  pray,  or  bring  ourselves 
into  communion  with  the  ineffable  and  the  invisible.  We  must,  in 
other  words,  see  with  both  eyes — the  fleshly  and  the  spiritual. 
Watching  is  the  one  operation ;  praying  is  the  other. 

The  conjunction  of  the  two  is  not  accidental  to  this  passage.  It 
is  not  a  chance  that  these  two  lives  are  braided  together.  As  in  the 
growth  of  a  plant  every  additional  joint  protrudes  another  stem,  so 
in  the  life  which  we  are  living  the  spiritual  is  the  outgrowth  of  the 
natural.  , 

These  two  spheres  in  which  we  develop  the  one  character,  cover 
what  may  be  called  the  physical  and  the  spiritual  conditions 
of  success  in  right  living.  Christ's  conception  of  right  living 
in  this  world  was  to  increase  the  sum  and  force  of  spiritual  man- 
hood. That  is  distinctively  Christ's  teaching.  We  aj-e  not  living  in 
this  world  for  its  honor,  nor  for  its  pleasure,  nor  for  its  wealth,  ner 
for  its  power,  although  we  have  a  right  to  some  of  all  of  these ;  but 
by  industry,  by  frugality,  by  labor,  by  education,  by  all  the  forces 
which  belong  to  human  nature,  we  are  in  this  life  to  develop  a 
higher  and  spiritual  manhood. 

We  are  to  remember  that  our  Saviour  was  not  in  the  habit  of 
condemning  the  world  absolutely.  He  was  neither  an  ascetic,  nor 
had  he  secular  indifFerentism.  He  nowhere  taught,  when  we  take 
t^e  compass  and  scope  of  his  instruction,  that  men  should  deny 
themselves  things  that  are  agreeable  to  the  whole  of  their  being  in 
this  world ;  and  still  less  did  he  teach  that  men  should  retire  out  of 
the  world.  Indeed,  in  his  prayer  with  his  disciples  at  last,  he 
explicitly  says,  "  I  pray  not  that  thou  shouldst  take  them  out  of 
this  world,  but  that  thou  shouldst  keep  them  from  the  evil  that  is  in 
it."  He  nowhere  taught  that  men  are  to  seek  the  ti'ue  end  of  life 
by  getting  out  of  business,  or  by  getting  out  of  the  great  social 
fabric  into  which  they  are  brought  by  birth.  Nor  did  he  anywhere 
teach  that  it  was  wicked  to  indulge,  if  it  be  done  with  moderation 
or  self-control,  in  the  pleasure  of  the  eye,  or  the  pleasure  of  the  ear, 
or  the  pleasure  of  the  senses  in  any  direction. 


IN  SPIBITUAL  LIFE.  139 

This  is  the  more  striking  if  you  consider  how  he  compared  with 
John  the  Baptist.  There  existed,  in  the  time  of  our  Saviour  three 
great  sects — the  Pharisee,  who  was  the  Puritan  of  the  Jews  ;  the 
Sadducee,  who  was  the  liberal  and  skeptical  man  of  the  Jewish 
period  ;  and  the  Essene,  who  was  the  ascetic  of  that  time.  The 
Essenes  taught  that  it  was  positively  wicked  to  enjoy  sensuous 
pleasui-es  ;  and  they  committed  all  manner  of  honest  fooleries 
in  their  endeavors  at  self-denial  in  oi'der  to  become  better  men.  It  is 
more  than  probable  that  John  the  Baptist  was  largely  tinctured 
with  their  views.  He  did  not  live  among  men.  He  dwelt  in  the 
wilderness.  He  was  clad  as  they  were  accustomed  to  be  clad  ;  and 
he  fed  as  they  were  accustomed  to  feed.  And  his  whole  discourse 
was  of  a  severe,  reformatory  character.  There  were  no  elements  in 
him  such  as  breathed  the  amenities  of  social  life.  He  came  neither 
eating  nor  drinking,  is  the  description  of  him.  He  was  a  man 
of  abstinent  and  severe  habits.  On  every  side  he  held  himself  aloof 
from  the  great  affairs  and  thoroughfares  of  men,  and  made  himself 
a  man  not  among  men,  but  aside  from  men,  seeking  a  higher  char- 
acter than  was  common  in  his  time. 

Our  master  received  baptism  at  his  hand  ;  and  then,  after  some 
tarrying  in  the  neighborhood,  went  to  Galilee,  and  began  his 
ministry  ;  and  his  ministry  was  not,  in  that  regard,  the  parallel  of 
John,  nor  did  he  resemble  him.  On  the  contrary,  our  Master  was 
described  as  being  the  very  antithesis  of  John. 

"John  came  neither  eating  nor  drinking,  and  they  say,  that  he  hath  a 
devil.  The  Son  of  man  came  eating  and  drinking  [the  very  opposite  of 
John],  and  they  say,  Behold  a  man  gluttonous,  and  a  wine  bibber." 

Neither,  however,  contented  them.  But  the  light  which  this 
throws  on  our  Saviour's  social  habits  is  transcendently  important ; 
and  we  see  it  carried  out  in  snatches  in  the  detached  history  of  the 
Master.  He  was  accustomed  to  live  just  as  those  lived  who  were 
around  about  him.  He  folloAved  in  early  life  their  jjursuits.  He 
acted  according  to  the  established  customs  of  his  time.  We  find 
him,  in  the  more  detailed  account  of  his  daily  life,  going  with  the 
poor  as  if  he  were  poor;  and  going  with  tho  rich,  and  conformino" 
to  the  customs  which  existed  among  the  rich.  He  was  a  thorough 
Jew  of  his  own  period.  In  all  things  which  were  not  morally  wrong, 
he  conformed  to  the  ways  of  the  time  and  the  society  in  which  he 
lived.  He  sat  at  the  rich  man's  fable ;  and  though  he  rebuked 
many  of  the  lapses  and  crimes  of  riches ;  though  he  spoke  words 
of  such  Aveight  that  men  quailed  under  them,  yet  we  do  not  find 
that  he  made  the  possession  of  riches  the  subject-matter  of  a  charge 
of  moral  delinquency.     He  participated  in  the  largeness  and  bounty 


1 40  FSYSIGAL  HINDRANCES 

of  the  rich  man's  house ;  and  in  so  far  endorsed  it  that  he  lived  in 
social  fellowship  Avith  rich  men  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  hospi- 
tality. He  ate  what  they  ate,  and  drank  what  they  drank.  That 
he  drank  the  wine  of  the  country,  and  that  it  was  fermented,  there 
can  be  no  question.  Otherwise  there  could  have  been  no  such 
charge  as  that  which  was  made  against  him. 
"Behold  a  gluttonous  rnan  and  a  wine-bibber." 

That  is  to  say,  he  was  charged  with  being  gluttonous  in  his  food, 
and  drunken  in  his  drink.  Of  course,  it  was  a  dander ;  but  there 
would  have  been  no  point  to  it  if  there  had  not  been  something  in 
the  habits  of  our  Master  from  which  this  could  be  derived.  And 
we  see  what  it  was — namely,  a  temperate  indulgence  in  the  ordinary 
luxuries  and  comforts  which  belonged  to  a  well-appointed  house  in 
Judsea. 

Nor  do  we  find  it  anywhere  comprehensively  recorded  that  our 
Master  commanded  the  disciples,  as  a  part  of  their  preparation  of 
themselves  for  their  special  mission,  to  be  equipped  in  any  special 
manner.  They  were  to  go  forth  in  the  earth,  not  to  rebuke  this  and 
that  development  of  civilization  and  its  function  in  society.  They 
were  nowhere  ordained  to  set  these  things  aside,  as  though  they 
were  cynics,  or  ascetics,  or  secular  indifferentists.  But  from  first 
to  last,  while  the  Saviour  paid  a  wise  regard  to  outward  things 
in  a  hundred  different  ways,  he  was  pleased  to  make  an  application 
of  all  these  things,  and  of  the  whole  of  human  life,  to  the  interior, 
and  not  to  the  exterior. 

It  was  not  to  teach  us  to  build  up  an  outward  estate  that  we 
■were  born — though  we  are  permitted  to  build  that  up.  It  was  not 
for  inculcating  the  pursuit  of  secular  joy — though  we  are  permitted, 
to  pursue  that.  It  was  as  a  means,  not  as  an  end,  that  the  Master 
showed  their  uses.  It  was  not  to  increase  in  any  sense  the  force 
of  the  outward  life.  It  was,  by  means  of  these  things,  and  many 
others,  designed  to  increase  the  forces  of  inward  manhood.  Christ 
held  up  the  other  life,  as  the  great  end  of  livino-. 
"  Is  not  the  life  more  than  meat  ?" 

AVhat  if  your  head  is  overspread  by  a  magnificent  architecture  ; 
what  if  your  garments  are  purple  and  broidered  with  gold  ;  what 
if  your  table  is  magnificent  in  its  luxury  ;  what  if  every  want  is 
pampered,  is  not  your  manhood  starving,  after  all  ?  There  is  some- 
thing else  besides  the  senses.  That  for  which  a  man  lives  is  to  pro- 
mote something  in  him  more  than  the  mere  power  of  knowledge. 
It  is  to  promote  the  sum  of  his  higher  being. 

"A  man's  life  ODnsisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of  the  things  which  lie 
possesseth." 

A  man  may  have  estates,  and  provinces  of  estates,  wealth  count- 


IN  SPIRITUAL  LIFE.  1 4 1 

less,  and  all  the  joys  which  go  together  in  the  train  of  luxury  and 

wealtli ;  and  yet,  his  life  cannot  be  touched  by  these  things.     That 

is  not  his  life  which  these  things  feed.     You  must  touch  soniethino- 

higher  than  these  before  you  touch  a  mail's  life,  or  that  for  which 

he  is  supremely  to  live. 

"  What  shall  it  profit  a  man,  if  he  gain  the  whole  world,  and  lose  his 
own  soul  ?" 

There  is  an  aim  and  an  end  higher  than  power,  or  ambition,  or 
pleasure,  or  luxury.  You  will  find,  all  through  Christ's  ministry, 
that  he  is  continually  praising  the  higher  life,  and  the  higher  man- 
hood. It  is  to  be  developed  in  connection  with  the  lower  life  and 
the  lower  manhood — partly  by  its  instrumentality  ;  but  it  is  to  be 
the  great  end  and  aim  of  every  man  to  live  to  increase  in  himself  the 
sum,  and  power,  and  fineness  of  this  interior  and  elemental  manhood, 
so  that  having  lived  on  earth,  he  shall  be  prepared  to  live  in  the 
other  life  without  the  accompaniments  of  the  flesh. 

Here,  then,  is  an  ideal  to  be  pursued  by  every  one.  The  real  and 
substantial  things — that  is,  the  physical  the  outward,  and  the  visible 
— are  but  instruments  by  which  we  are  seeking  aa  ideal  and  higher 
manhood. 

Our  Saviour  distinctly  teaches  that  the  pursuit  of  this  great  end 
of  life  is  in  one  sense  not  easy  ;  though  when  a  man  has  fully  en- 
tered into  it,  the  outcome  of  this  way  of  living  is  full  of  peace  and 
pleasure.  When  a  man  institutes  it,  and  begins  to  live,  not  for  the 
lower  but  for  the  higher  nature  that  is  in  him,  he  will  be  sure  to 
have  a  life-long  conflict.  It  is  an  education  that  is  not  easy.  It  is 
true  that  Christ's  cross,  and  yoke,  and  burden,  bring  peace  and  rest ; 
but  it  is  none  the  less  true  that  the  cross  is  a  cross,  that  the 
yoke  is  irksome,  and  that  the  burden  has  its  appropriate  weight. 
These  are  all  of  them  correct  statements  as  men's  experience  inter- 
prets them.  In  attempting  to  live  for  this  higher  manhood,  we  have 
a  conflict  with  ourselves,  with  the  world,  with  the  past,  with  the 
present,  with  the  future :  not  all  at  once,  nor  always  ;  but  Ave  must 
meet  so  much  resistance,  and  we  are  so  unskillful,  and  so  feeble  in 
moral  excellence,  and  that  Avhich  is  carnal  is  so  strong  in  us,  that  no 
man  can  grow  in  grace  without  incessant  vigilance  and  strife.  There- 
fore it  is  that  all  the  way  through  the  New  Testament  there  are  ex- 
hortations such  as  would  be  given  to  a  soldier, — not  to  sleep  ;  to  be 
on  the  alert ;  to  be  fully  armed  and  equipped  at  all  times  ;  to  watch 
and  pray. 

Now,  in  this  conflict  there  are  two  sources  of  help  and  of  hin- 
drance, following  the  two  spheres  in  which  we  are  living — the  out- 
ward and  the  inward.     These  sources  of  help  are  harmonious,  and 


142  PHYSICAL  HINDBANCES 

they  should  be  combined.  They  supplement  each  other.  But,  for 
the  sake  of  instruction  they  may  be  analyzed,  or  considered  sepa- 
rately— those  things  which  hinder  us,  and  belong  to  our  lower 
nature ;  and  those  things  which  help  the  divine  life  in  the  soul,  and 
spring  from  our  higher  nature. 

This  morning  I  shall  consider  the  physical  and  the  secular  side, 
and  point  out  some  of  those  difficulties  which  spring  up  when  we 
attempt  to  develop  the  spiritual  manhood  from  our  bodily  condi- 
tions. I  shall  dwell  upon  this  because  it  is  considered  less,  I  think, 
in  the  pulpit,  than  the  other  side  is.  We  hear  far  more  about  spirit- 
i;al  helps  and  spiritual  hindrances  than  we  do  about  the  helps  and 
the  hindrances  which  spring  from  the  nature  of  the  body,  and  the 
circumstances  of  this  material  world  in  which  the  body  is  placed. 

Men  are  generally  told,  when  they  are  attempting  to  live  better 
lives,  that  they  are  to  break  off  all  known  sins ;  but  they  are  not 
always  told  how  a  sin  can  be  broken  off.  They  are  not  told  to  dis- 
tinguish between  chronic  sins  and  ti'ansient  ones.  They  ai-e  not  told 
the  difference  between  the  sins  that  come  from  passion  and  the  sins 
that  come  from  pride.  They  are  not  told  anything  of  the  structure  of 
the  mind  by  which  they  can  get  help  by  the  counterpoise  of  the 
different  mental  facultieg.  They  are  simply  told  to  break  off  all 
known  sins.     This,  to  some  extent,  is  intelligible  instruction. 

"Let  him  that  stole  steal  no  more."  "  Ye  are  all  the  children  of  light,  and 
the  children  of  the  day ;  we  are  not  of  the  ni^bt,  nor  of  darkness,  Tliere- 
fore  let  us  not  sleep,  as  do  others ;  but  let  us  watch  and  be  sober." 

All  these  things  men  know.  And  when  their  troubles  come 
from  fiery  temper,  and  from  corroding  envy,  and  from  worldly  pride, 
and  from  cold  selfishness,  they  are  told  to  break  off  from  sins  spring- 
ino-  from  these  sources.  But  how  many  know  how  to  break  off  from 
such  sins  ?  They  set  over  against  them  i-esolutions,  and  they  follow 
up  these  resolutions  with  prayer  to  God ;  but  there  is  no  psycho- 
loo-ical  insight  or  knowledge  by  which  they  shall  have  any  advan- 
tage in  the  conquest  of  their  sins.  They  are  told  to  join  the  Church 
of  Christ;  to  pray  earnestly  ;  to  read  their  Bible;  to  keep  Sunday  ; 
to  do  good;  but  the  science  of  self-government  as  respects  the  lower 
order  of  a  man's  faculties  is  very  little  taught.  Nor  do  I  propose 
to  enter  into  it  after  a  philosophical  schedule,  and  to  raise  the  ques- 
tion from  the  beginning,  and  carry  it  to  its  end.  That  would  be 
fitter  for  a  treatise  or  an  essay.  I  propose,  rather,  to  select  a  few 
points  that  will  throw  light  upon  many  difficulties  which  men  have 
sprino-ing  from  their  physical  organization — difficulties  which  hin- 
der the  development  in  them  of  the  largest  ideal  manhood. 

There  is  nobody  living  so  well  as  he  meant  to  live.     There  is 


IN  SPIRITUAL  LFFK  1 4  i5 

nol)Ocly  living  as  he  wants  to  live.  There  is  nobody  whose  better 
hours  do  not  sit  in  judgment  over  the  ordinary  hours  of  his  lifa 
There  is  no  one  of  us  that,  when  we  have  a  clearer  view  of  the  eter- 
nal sphere,  of  the  nature  of  God,  and  of  divine  love,  does  not  feel 
that  he  is  sold  under  sin,  and  in  whose  thought  fear  is  not  continu- 
ally rising,  if  we  have  not  nearness  of  access  to  Christ,  who  forgives 
sins,  and  takes  it  away  from  us. 

1.  I  think  that  men,  through  imperfect  conceptions  of  truth,  are 
continually  attempting  two  impossibilities.  They  are  attempting 
to  live  right,  to  live  a  better  life,  by  compassing  two  things  that  are 
absolutely  impossible. 

In  .the.  first  place,  they  attempt  to  gain  suddenly  a  capital  of 
spiritual -power  by  which  they  can  carry  out  their  warfare  against 
the  flesh.  They  hope  that  by  conversion,  by  some  adjunction,  as  it 
were,  of  the  divine  power,  there  will  come  a  flash  of  the  divine  spirit 
which  will  burn  out  of  them  whatever  is  evil,  and  that  they  shall,  by 
the  act  of  conversion,  by  adoption  into  the  household  of  faith,  fall 
upon  the  source  of  rich  and  ripe  spiritual  fruit — faith,  hope,  joy,  love 
■ — and  that  these,  as  a  mighty  maelstrom,  will  be  able  so  to  turn  the 
wheel  of  their  resolutions  that  they  shall  carry  on  the  whole  of  their 
mind-life  by  these  forces  that  have  been  suddenly  implanted  in  them. 
This  is  an  absolute  impossibility.  A  poet  who  has  only  just  begun 
to  utter  truths,  and  utters  them  but  imperfectly,  might  just  as  well 
expect  that  God  would  so  inflame  him  that  in  an  instant  he  could 
write  a^  Milton  could  after  a  long  life  of  drill  and  education ;  au 
artist  might  just  as  well  expect,  by  the  direct  inshining  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  upon  him,  to  design  and  carve  and  paint  the  highest  works 
of  art  instantaneously,  as  for  a  person  to  expect  to  have  all  the  force 
and  fullness  and  richness  of  a  spiritual  life  by  an  inflashing  of  the 
Holy  Ghost. 

We  have  a  whole  summer  before  we  reap  our  corn  or  our  wheat. 
We  have  the  bud,  the  blossom,  and  the  long-growing  apple,  and 
then  the  late-sweetening  apple.  It  takes  all  the  light  and  heat  of 
three  months  to  prepare  the  apple  to  be  plucked  from  the  bou"-h. 
And  do  you  suppose  that  the  higher  fruits  of  the  spirit — love,  joy, 
and  peace — can  all  of  them  come  at  once,  and  by  the  act  of  conver- 
sion ?  Or  do  you  suppose  that,  by  the  immediate  shining  of  God 
upon  the  soul,  by  sudden  conversion,  a  man  enters  upon  the  subtlest, 
the  highest,  the  most  difficult  education — namely,  the  evolution  and 
full  development  of  his  moral  faculties  ?  On  the  contrary,  we  only 
enter  upon  the  beginning  of  that  development  at  conversion.  There 
is  much  joy  and  peace  in  it ;  there  is  much  that  makes  it  worth 
while ;  but  it  is  to  be  an  education,  and  not  a  donation.     And  the 


144  FHTSIGAL  EINDBANCE8 

expectation  with  which  people  enter  upon  a  Christian  life,  that  they 
are  at  the  start  to  have  such  a  capital  as  will  last  them  all  the  rest 
of  their  days,  is  a  false  expectation.  The  thing  is  an  absolute  impos- 
sibility. It  never  did  take  place,  and  it  never  will.  At  any  rate, 
we  have  no  authority  for  saying  that  it  ever  took  place. 

We  can  distinctly  trace  the  evolution  of  the  character  of  the 
apostle  Paul,  because  we  have  letters  which  run  over  a  great  deal  of 
his  life ;  and  we  can  see  that  a  rij^er  exj^erience  characterized  the 
last  of  his  life  than  existed  in  it  at  first.  He,  though  he  was  called 
to  preeminently  the  highest  work  of  men,  had  to  go  through  an  un- 
folding process  according  to  a  natural  process.  And  experience 
shows  that  Christians,  to-day,  have  to  go  through  the  same  thing. 
And  the  expectations  with  which  many  persons  begin  a  Christian 
life  is  a  stumbling-block  to  them.  Though  they  are  in  darkness  to- 
day, they  expect  that  to-morrow,  by  a  change  of  heart,  they  will  be 
in  a  full  flood  of  light — light  which  shall  pour  down  upon  them 
continually  all  manner  of  joys  and  comforts.  They  expect  that  by 
the  power  of  the  added  spiritual  gift  which  they  are  to  receive,  they 
will  be  able  to  overcome  everything. 

Now,  a  person,  being  converted,  has  acce'ss  to  God,  and  a  real- 
ization of  the  divine  presence ;  and  he  has  helps  that  he  never  had 
before ;  but  these  are  but  the  beginning  of  the  education  upon  which 
he  has  entered,  which  will  be  gradual  and  continuous,  and  will  reach 
clear  through  to  the  very  end  of  his  life. 

Over  against  this,  there  is  another  impossibility  w^hich  men  at- 
tempt when  they  begin  to  live  a  Christian  life.  Not  only  have  they 
an  impossible  ideal,  but  they  attempt  to  smother,  to  put  down,  to 
render  inactive,  those  great  primal  forces  Avhich  are  organized  into 
human  life,  and  which,  thank  God,  are  irresistible  and  insuperable. 

There  are  very  many  men  who  are  so  organized  that  their  appe- 
tites and  their  passions  predominate  with  terrific  force ;  and  there  is 
a  certain  violence  to  be  done  to  nature  in  their  case.  There  is  a 
certain  restraint  to  be  imposed  upon  it.  But  if  one  could,  no  man 
should  desire  to,  extinguish  all  those  great  basilar  forces  which  carry 
in  them,  to  a  large  extent,  the  vitality  and  power  of  a  man's  whole 
life.  And  though  a  man  may  desire  to  do  it  ever  so  much,  it  is  ab- 
solutely impossible.  A  man  may  think  that  he  has  done  it ;  he  may 
hide  himself  from  these  things ;  he  may  say,  "  I  have  by  the  help 
of  God  overcome  them ;"  but  they  are  not  overcome. 

An  eminent  man,  once,  when  a  person  was  boasting  in  his  pres- 
ence, and  saying  that  he  thought  he  had  overcome  all  his  sinful 
tendencies,  took  a  glass  of  water  and  dashed  it  in  his  face ;  and  he 
found  out  that  the  devil  was  there  yet.  He  was  not  destroyed, 
though  he  had  been  hidden. 


IN  SPIRITUAL  LIFE.  145 

And  men  who  think  that  they  have  overcome  these  organic  ten- 
dencies in  the  mere  act  of  being  converted,  are  laboring  under  a 
profound  mistake.  After  you  have  been  living  a  Christian  life  for 
twenty  years,  or  for  thirjiy  years,  if  you  had  these  strong  tendencies 
organized  in  you  at  the  beginning,  they  will  be  there  still.  No 
power  will  eradicate  them  where  they  once  existed.  They  are  in- 
eradicable. 

Well,  can  they  be  overcome  ?  Not  in  the  sense  of  being  taken 
out.  They  will  be  in  you  every  year  and  every  month  and  every 
hour  of  your  life.  But  if  you  are  a  Christian,  and  you  are  living  for 
a  higher  spiritual  manhood,  and  you  begin  with  strong  secular  en- 
dowments of  passion  and  appetite  ;  if  you  have  large  self-esteem  ;  if 
you  are  strongly  inclined  to  the  love  of  praise ;  if  you  have  an  in- 
tense will ;  if  you  have  a  mighty  power  of  combativeness ;  if  you 
have  a  sweeping  and  intense  tendency  in  you,  you  can  use  these  el- 
ements ;  but  you  can  never  take  them  out  of  the  waj^ — never. 

There  goes  down  by  the  side  of  a  man's  door,  a  thundering  brook ; 
"and  he  thinks  to  himself,  "  That  continually  rattling,  that  forever 
bubbling,  that  lazy,  i-ollicking  brook,  I  will  take  out  of  the  way," 
Well,  let  him  take  it  out  of  the  way  if  he  can.  He  may  take  his 
bucket,  and  work  night  and  day,  and  scoop  up  bucketful  after 
bucketful,  and  carry  it  away,  and  yet  the  brook  will  be  undimin- 
ished as  long  as  the  mountain  clouds  dissolve  and  feed  its  sources. 
But  that  man,  in  a  better  mood,  says,  "I  will  throw  a  little  dam 
across  that  brook,  and  will  build  a  mill,  and  will  make  it  work  for 
me."  Ah  !  that  he  can  do.  He  builds  his  mill,  and  sets  his  wheel, 
and  the  brook  is  taught  to  run  over  the  wheel,  and  the  wheel  works 
to  the  pressure  of  the  brook,  and  industry  goes  on  within.  He  could 
not  subdue  the  brook,  but  he  could  make  it  Avork  for  him. 

A  man  cannot  eradicate  his  temper,  but  he  can  determine  what 
it  shall  do.  He  can  determine  whether  it  shall  become  a  fire  under 
moral  feeling.  Is  there  anything  in  this  world  that  wants  more  tem- 
per than  our  moral  feelings  ?  Does  not  all  the  world  know  that 
goodness  without  temper  is  flat,  stale  and  unprofitable  ?  Does  not 
all  the  world  know  that  a  man  Avho,  before  he  is  converted,  has  that 
force  which  comes  from  temper,  is,  after  he  becomes  a  Christian, 
tame,  if  he  wholly  restrains  that  temper  and  renders  it  inactive  ?  It 
is  because  men  have  a  false  conception  of  moral  feelings  that  they 
want  a  virtue  which  has  no  power,  no  life,  no  force  in  it.  The  law 
of  development  is  such  that  just  so  soon  as  the  outward  objects  on 
which  we  expend  our  physical  forces  are  removed,  we  can  turn  them 
in  higher  intellectual  channels. 

Here  is  a  physician  who  has  large  learning,  and  is  discerning, 


146  PHYSICAL  EINDBANCES 

and  who  is  called  to  attend  a  critical  case ;  and  he  looks  upon  it, 
and  reads  it,  and  says  to  himself,  "  This  is  the  appropriate 
remedy" ;  and  he  gives  it,  and  then  goes  away ;  and  he  comes 
back  again  leisurely,  and  finds  that  the  disease  has  resisted  the 
medicine,  and  is  marching  on  ;  and  he  says,  "  Well,  I  am  sorry"  ; 
but  this  is  the  thing  that  should  have  been  done."  And  he  suggests 
another  remedy  ;  and  he  goes  away  again  ;  and  he  comes  back  once 
raoi-e.  He  has  large  wisdom,  but  he  is  without  very  much  force ; 
and  the  man  dies ;  and  he  is  very  sorry. 

There  is  another  physician — a  little,  wiry,  insignificant  fellov,' — 
who  is  called  to  a  similar  case.  The  moment  he  sees  it,  he  says, 
"  This  is  the  remedy."  And  with  an  intensity  of  determination  he 
says,  "I  will  fight  death  to  his  face."  And  he  sticks  to  the  man 
night  and  day,  and  does  fight  death  to  his  face ;  and  he  snatches 
the  man  from  the  border  of  the  grave,  and  he  gets  well.  It  is  the 
j)hysician's  combativeness  working  with  his  humanity  and  slvill,  that 
carries  the  patient  through. 

The  power  to  make  your  better  nature  fight  depends  largely 
upon  your  putting  skill  and  combativeness  under  it,  and  mak- 
ing them  give  spirit,  and  fire,  and  intensity,  and  continuity  to 
your  higher  feelings.  If  you  conceive  of  a  man  as  having  been 
created  in  a  low  and  savage  state,  you  think  of  him  as  having 
to  do  with  external  laws  in  his  conflict  with  outward  things, 
and  as  being  prepared  to  resist  the  flood,  the  torrent,  the  wild  beast, 
and  the  savage;  but  in  higher  relations  we  transfer  the  opera- 
tion of  these  passions,  and  they  become  factors  of  society.  It  is 
by  the  power  of  combativeness  and  constructiveness  that  we  cut 
mountains  asunder,  and  bridge  rivers,  and  fell  forests,  and  shield 
ourselves  against  the  elements  so  that  the  storm  cannot  harm  us. 
It  is  by  the  power  of  the  basilar  passions  and  appetites  that  man 
measures  himself  against  nature ;  and  so  far  from  their  extinction 
being  a  thing  to  be  desired,  it  is  a  thing  to  be  deprecated.  For  a 
man  who  has  none  of  these  basilar  feelings  is  what  a  man  would  le 
out  of  whom  had  been  pulled  all  the  bones.  What  was  left  Avould 
be  of  great  value,  but  it  would  be  of  very  little  use.  And  men  who 
seek  goodness,  and  seek  to  make  themselves  Christians,  of  all  men 
need  to  have  fire  and  powder  in  them.  The  things  which  they  are 
to  do,  and  the  things  which  they  are  to  gain,  require  perseverance 
and  push  and  intensity.  The  trouble  is,  not  that  these  basilar 
forces  are  in  their  nature  malign,  but  that  they  are  misdirected. 

A  man  says,  "  Pride  is  condemned  in  the  Word  of  God  ;  and  I 
am  excessively  proud :  now  I  Avill  watch  against  my  pride  ;  and 
every  time  self-esteem  begins  to  throb  in  me,  I  will  put  it  down." 


IN  SFIEITUAL  LIFE.  147 

Tou  fool,  you  will  never  put  it  down.  You  may  teach  your  pvide 
to  deceive  you ;  it  may  play  Jesuit  inside  of  you ;  but  there  it  is, 
and  there  it  will  be  to  the  end  of  life.  But  suppose  you  should 
say,  "  Pride,  since  you  are  there  by  God's  appointment,  be  proud  of 
higher  things"  ?  Let  it  have  free  course,  and  point  it  upward  to 
things  sweet  and  pure  and  noble.  Be  proud  of  truth.  Be  proud 
of  goodness.  Be  proud  of  benevolence.  Be  proud  of  all  things 
that  lie  in  the  direction  of  the  upper  sphere.  Give  force  and  in- 
tensity in  that  direction.  Educate  pride  and  self-esteem  to  work  in 
that  direction. 

A  man  says,  "  I  am  called  to  be  a  Christian,  and  I  must  be  meek 
and  humble,  and  not  love  the  praise  of  men.  I  must  suspect  myself 
whenever  I  do  anything  to  win  praise,  or  when  I  enjoy  praise." 

Why,  you  sweet  and  dear  fool,  again,  do  you  suppose  that  God 
put  a  feeling  of  that  kind  into  you  for  the  sake  of  having  you  take 
it  all  out  again,  and  not  use  it  ?  What  business  have  you  to  em- 
bai  /ass  the  divine  Providence,  that  has  constructed  you  with  these 
things,  that  they  might  be  used  ?  God  does  not  tell  you  to  take 
them  out.  He  says,  "  Educate  them ;  regulate  them ;  moderate 
them ;  apply  them." 

We  are  condemned,  not  for  loving  the  praise  of  men,  but  fnw* 
loving  the  praise  of  men  more  than  the  praise  of  God.  If  a  child 
is  approbative,  do  not  attempt  to  make  him  less  so.  Persons  say, 
*'  Do  not  praise  a  child  before  his  face."  I  say.  Do  praise  a  child 
before  his  face.  It  is  the  best  thing  that  you  can  do  for  him  :  but 
do  not  praise  him  because  his  hair  curls,  nor  because  he  has  some 
bright  buttons  on  his  new-made  pantaloons.  Do  not  praise  him  for 
things  that  are  indifferent  or  insignificant ;  but  if  he  is  approbative, 
and  he  tells  the  truth  when  he  is  sti'ongly  tempted  to  tell  a  lie,  then 
praise  him,  and  let  his  approbativeness  become  the  guardian  of  hia 
conscience  in  the  matter  of  truth-telling.  If  a  child  is  generous  and 
brave,  periling  his  own  life,  or  his  own  convenience  (which  is  a  great 
deal  harder)  for  some  other  person ;  if  he  does  anything  that  is 
honorable  or  noble,  praise  him.  Praise  him  for  the  upper  qualities ; 
and  teach  him  to  discriminate  between  that  which  belongs  to  him  as 
an  animal,  and  that  which  belongs  to  him  as  a  nascent  man.  Then 
virtue  will  work  in  the  right  direction,  and  there  can  scarcely  bo  too 
much  of  it.  It  may  be  in  disproportion,  but  the  disproportion  will 
be  working  in  the  right  direction. 

And  so  it  is  with  all  the  other  lower  feelings.  It  is  not  for  you 
to  attempt  to  eradicate  them.  You  are  to  understand  them,  rather. 
They  may  be  forces  Avorking  on  the  intellectual  plane,  and  toward 
the  social  and  moral  plane  ;  and  then  they  give  intensity,  variety, 
richness,  force  and  naturalness  to  the  higher  moral  developments. 


148  PHYSICAL  HINDRANCES 

And  it  would  be  a  great  deal  wiser  if  men,  instead  of  attempting 
unnaturally  to  get  rid  of  these  things,  which  they  never  do  get  rid 
of,  would  seek  to  guide  them  aright.  Men  have  gone  into  caves  to 
get  rid  of  pride ;  but  they  have  not  got  rid  of  it.  If  a  turtle  creeps 
into  a  hole,  he  is  a  turtle  still.  If  a  snake  crawls  under  leaves  and 
stones,  he  is  a  snake  notwithstanding.  And  if  a  man  covers  up  and 
hides  the  lower  propensities  of  his  being,  he  does  not  get  rid  of 
them,  nor  change  their  nature.  He  carries  them  in  him  still.  If  a 
clock  has  the  bad  habit  of  striking  wrong,  and  you  take  it  out  of 
one  room  and  put  it  into  another,  do  you  suppose  it  will  strike  right  ? 
Changing  its  place  does  not  change  its  quality  at  all. 

The  education  which  life  gives,  is,  I  think,  the  most  wholesome 
you  could  have.  It  may  be  that  life  is  full  of  temptations  ;  but  it 
is  full  of  wholesomeness.  Life  is  God's  great  institution  for  train- 
ing men.  The  church  itself  is  subordinated  to  that  greater  educa- 
tional institution,  human  life.  To  be  obliged  to  plan,  to  be  obliged 
to  work,  to  be  obliged  to  choose,  is  to  have  your  judgment  edu- 
cated, an»d  your  moral  force  developed.  To  be  put  on  your  own  re- 
sponsibility, and  to  be  compelled  to  go  through  trials  and  difficulties, 
is  a  part  of  the  divine  scheme  so  far  as  this  world  is  concerned.  All 
that  which  we  call  secular  society  is  God's  synagogue,  God's  work- 
shop, God's  academy  ;  and  men  are  put  there  for  the  sake  of  making 
manhood  out  of  them — only  you  must  not  mistake  it  for  the  end. 
You  must  understand  that  it  is  but  an  instrument,  and  that  this 
great  manhood  is  to  be  wrought  out  by  it,  and  in  it. 

Moderation,  then,  not  crucifixion,  literally  (though  that  is  tho 
figure  employed  in  the  New  Testament)  ;  self-government,  not  ex- 
tinction— that  is  the  law. 

Now,  here  are  these  two  impossibilities :  a  notion  that  the  trans- 
formation of  a  person  at  conversion  will  put  him  in  possession  ot 
higher  spiritual  forces*;  and  the  impression  that  at  conversion  a  man 
can  eradicate  those  forces  by  which  life  itself  is  propelled.  Neither 
of  them  ought  to  be  attempted. 

2.  I  remark  that  in  attempting  to  develop  the  great  ideal  of  a 
true  manhood,  it  is  of  supreme  importance  that  every  person  should 
have  normal  occupation.  The  statement  of  it  will,  perhaps,  seem 
very  simple  to  you  ;  but  I  think  that  industry  Js.„one  of  the 
greatest  means  of  grace  in  this  world.  I  think  that  industry 
alone,  will  do  more  than  half  the  time  is  done  by  the  school  or 
the  church,  for  men's  integrity,  and  for  their  morality.  Not  that 
I  undervalue  the  school  or  the  church  ;  but  as  I  read  the  divine 
arrangement  in  this  world,  all  these  things  are  meant  to  cooperate. 
You  might  as  well  ask  which  is  the  most  important  of  the  fingers,  or 
whether  the  hand  is  more  or  less  important  than  the  foot.    They  are 


IN  SPIBITUAL  LIFE.  149 

all  ■wanted  In  the  one  perfection  of  the  body.  In  the  education  of 
man  everything  is  needed  ;  and  it  may  seem  almost  ungracious  to 
institute  a  comparison  between  the  several  parts  of  the  system  by 
"which  man  is  educated  ;  but  if  I  should  analyze  and  separate  them 
I  should  put  simple  normal  industry, — or  the  api^lication  of  the 
active  faculties  to  work,  or  to  business,  steadily,  every  day, — very 
high  among  the  educating  influences  which  God's  providence 
employs.  And  on  the  other  side  I  should  put  laziness,  whether  it  be 
enforced  or  optional,  as  one  of  the  greatest  misfortunes  that  can 
befall  a  man  who  has  the  least  idea  of  true  manhood.  One  thing  i3 
certain  :  that  our  minds  were  meant  to  be  active ;  and  that  when 
men  are  highly  organized,  the  forces  which  belong  to  any  faculty 
will  drive  them  into  some  sort  of  activity.  If  these  faculties  have 
legitimate  business,  they  will  be  normally  and  wholesomely  em- 
ployed, and  there  will  be  nothing  left  to  fret  and  work  morbid 
feeling. 

When  Western  steamboats  run  up  to  a  landing,  carrying  a  full 
head  of  steam,  and  exj)ecting  to  depart  again  soon,  they  have  a  Avay 
of  unshipping  the  wheel  and  running  the  engine.  The  wheel  stands 
perfectly  still,  and  the  engine  is  playing  all  the  while.  That  is 
to  prevent  explosions.  There  is  so  much  steam  in  the  boiler,  and 
it  must  get  out  ;  and  if  the  engine  is  kept  running,  the  boiler  will 
not  explode. 

It  is  necessary  that  you  should  give  some  vent  to  the  vitality  and 
activity  which  inhere  in  you ;  and  if  you  have  a  regular  business — 
that  is,  an  aj^pointed  channel  through  which  you  are  to  let  out  your 
forces ;  and  if  those  forces  are  normally  expended,  they  will  not 
want  to  frisk  or  play  in  by  and  forbidden  ways. 

He  who  has  an  industry  that  is  in  accordance  with  all  his  tastea 
and  appetites,  is  one  of  a  million.  He  is  most  fortunate.  He  belongs 
to  God's  elect.  He  who  has  had  given  him,  and  Avho  has  accepted  at 
the  hands  of  God,  a  sphere  of  activity  which  is  congenial  to  him,  and 
through  which  he  expends  his  vital  forces,  has  in  his  business  a 
great  means  of  grace. 

We  hear  persons  say,  many  times,  ".Oh!  you  ministers  have 
nothing  to  do  but  to  be  good ;  but  if  you  were  brokers  as  we  are, 
on  the  street,  and  had  to  deal  with  all  sorts  of  men,  and  you  had  to 
go  early,  and  stay  late,  and  watch,  and  suspect,  and  protect  yourself 
against  the  dishonesties  which  are  practiced  in  business,  you  would 
not  find  it  so  easy  to  be  good."  Merchants  say,  "  If  you  had  such 
competitions  to  meet  as  we  do,  if  you  had  such  a  time  as  Ave  do  to 
get  through,  first,  on  the  one  side,  with  the  manufacturer,  or  the 
wholesale  dealer,  or  the  jobber,  and  then,  on  the  other  side,  with  the 


1 50  FHYSIGAL  HINBEANGES 

customer  ;  if  you  had  all  the  ten  thousand  trickeries  to  deal  with 
which  we  have  ;  if  you  had  such  a  business  as  ours  is,  you  would  not 
find  it  so  easy  to  be  good."  Now,  I  do  not  think  that  I  have  been  so 
very  good.  I  do  not  think  it  would  take  much  to  make  you  better  than 
I  have  been.  But  the  truth  is,  I  have  had  just  what  you  have  to  con- 
tend with.  And  I  have  had  to  keep  busy.  I  have  had  so  much  to  do 
and  think  about  that  I  have  not  had  much  time  for  thoughts  to  querl 
back  on  myself.  Many  a  man  owes  a  great  deal  of  his  virtue  to  the 
fact  of  his  having  been  kept  busy. 
/"  Satan  finds  some  miscliief  still  for  idle  hands  to  do." 

Though  Dr.  Watts  wrote  that  for  children,  you  had  better  carry 
it  through  life.  It  will  be  as  good  for  you  at  eighty  as  it  was 
at  eight.  It  is  business  that  allays  the  fiery  stimulus  ;  and  if  you 
have  no  business  you  are  in  great  danger  and  great  peril  ;  because 
the  mind  will  act,  and  if  it  cannot  do  so  normally  and  wholesomely, 
it  will  do  it  morbidly  and  injuriously.  The  efiect  of  business  is  to 
draw  ofi"  that  vital  force  which  otherwise  would  fever  the  mind. 

This  is  one  reason,  I  suppose,  why  it  is  better  to  bring  up  chil- 
dren to  work,  than  to  bring  them  up  with  continuous  leisure.  It  is 
better  to  bring  them  up  to  play,  if  they  cannot  work,  than  to  bring 
them  up  to  do  nothing.  It  used  to  be  said  that  ministers'  sons  Avere 
the  devil's  grandson-s.  I  do  not  believe  it.  Deacons'  sons  shared 
the  same  obloquy.  I  do  not  believe  it  of  them,  either.  On  the 
contrary,  I  believe  statistics  will  show  that  the  reverse  is  ti'ue.  But 
there  have  been  many  instances  of  persons  who  were  over-good,  and 
who  brought  up  every  one  of  their  children  so  tenderly  that  he 
bankrupted  himself  the  moment  he  was  twenty-one  years  of  age,  and 
was  on  his  own  feet. 

But  that  is  not  all.  If  you  bring  up  a  child  with  an  intense 
desire  ;  with  a  robust  stomach  that  digests  a  good  deal,  with  a  bodily 
organization  that  makes  blood  very  fast,  and  with  a  great  mass  of 
brain,  wdiich  is  stimulated  to  a  high  degree  ;  if  you  are  situated  ir» 
such  a  way  that  your  child  cannot  work  ;  if  you  are  neither  a  farmer 
nor  a  mechanic,  but  are  a  minister,  so  that  you  have  nothing  chat  he 
can  do  ;  if  you  are  so  careful  of  him  that  you  will  not  allo\7  Jum  to 
play  with  the  boys  in  the  street  lest  he  be  contaminated  ;  if  _you  say 
to  him,  *'  You  must  not  go  out  of  the  door-yard  ;  you  must  not  be 
away  from  home  at  night ;  you  must  not  go  to  places  of  amusement, 
nor  anywhere,"  he  gets  stopped  up.  If  you  could  say  xo  his  stomach, 
"  Stop  digestion,"  and  to  his  blood,  "  Stop  circulation,"  and  to  his 
heart,  "  Stop  beating,"  and  to  his  brain,  "  Stop  coruscating,"  i-u 
would  do  ;  but  the  child  goes  on  feeling,  and  yearning,  and  longing ; 
and  as  there  is  no  work  by  day,  and  no  work  by  night,  and  no  equiv- 


W  SPIRITUAL  LIFE.  151 

alent  for  work  ;  as  there  is  no  companionship ;  as  there  are  no  ex- 
peditions to  scale  mountains  or  to  pick  nuts  (and  oh  !  what  was 
sweeter  to  me  than  that  ?)  the  consequences  are  apt  to  be  serious,  if 
not  disastrous. 

That  wise  old  man,  my  father,  used  to  take  us  boys,  and  go 
a  nuttinsr  with  us  in  the  fields  and  forests.     The  leaves  wore  fallino-. 
.The  frost — kind  frost,  midwife  of  the  chestnut  burs — had  been  there 
before  us.     Then,  in  the  woods,  I  climbed,  and  others  climbed,  and 
shook  down  the  chestnuts  Avhich  we  afterward  picked  uj^.     We  en- 
joyed ourselves  exceedingly.    Thus  wo  spent  our  forces.    And  I  was 
a  better  boy  for  a  week  after  one  of  those  nutting  expeditions.    The 
devil  did  not  tempt  me  half  so  much  then  as  at  other  times.     But 
Avhen,  for  any  cause,  I  was  shut  up,  so  that  I  could  not  go  out,  and 
when  I  moped,  the  devil  got  big  in  me,  and  I  went  into  abnormal 
mischiefs— not  mischiefs  of  very  great  magnitude,  but  mischiefs  just 
large  enough  to  procure  me  a  whipping,  and  make  me  unhappy.    I 
marvel  that  we  children  were  not  worse  than  Ave  Avere.    Perhaps  Ave 
would  have  wrought  worse  mischiefs  than  we  did  if  Ave  had  not 
been  brought  up  iu  old  Litchfield,  that  grand   place  for  bringino- 
up  children.     I  suppose  we  Avere  heedless  and  Avaywaid  ;  and  yet 
although  my  father  brought  up  eleven  children  to  manhood,  all  of 
them  have  lived  but  one,  and  have  been  useful.     There  Avas  not  a 
great  deal  of  mistake  therefore.      But  where  it  did  come  in,  it  Avas 
from  the  Avant  of  a  calculation  of  the  actual  forces  that  Avere  at 
work  in  the  children,  and  that  Avould  have  some  outplay.     A  child 
must  do  something,  or  the  forces  Avhich  drive  him  on  Avill  take 
abnormal  channels,  breaking  out  on  one  side  or  another. 
I         You  can  say  to  a  stream,  "  Run,  just  as   you  please,  over  the 
Btones"  ;•  or,  building  a  dam,  you  can  say,  "  You  shall  jump  tAvo 
feet  over  the  stones"  ;  or,  building  the  dam  still  higher,  you   can 
say,  "You  shall  jump  five  feet,  and  fall  on  the  wheel  of  my  mill, 
and  turn  it."     But  you  cannot  stop  the  stream.     It  must  go  some- 
where, either  over  your  dam,  or  under  it,  or  around  it. 

So  in  human  life,  the  forces  of  children  must  have  some  vent  and 
outlet — and  that  in  proportion  as  they  are  organized  nobly  ;  and  if 
you  do  not  give  them  the  right  kind  of  vent,  they  Avill  get  the 
Avrong  kind. 

Sometimes  it  is  said,  What  is  the  use  of  this  government  of  chil- 
dren ?  There  is  Mr.  McCrea :  he  has  been  governing  his  children 
for  tAA'^enty  years  ;  and  just  look  at  them  !"  But  how  did  he  govern 
them?  He  tied  them  up;  he  Avatched  them;  he  never  trusted 
them  ;  he  never  let  them  make  mistakes.  Whereas,  the  best  lessons 
a  man  ever  has  are  his  mistakes.     And  if  you  never  put  children  on 


152  PHYSICAL  EINBBANCES 

their  feet ;  if  you  never  develop  in  them  the  power  of  self-govern- 
ment ;  if  you  afford  them  no  opportunity  of  intense  activity,  you 
deprive  them  of  that  which  is  of  the  utmost  importance  to  them. 
What  children  and  men  need  is  a  wholesome  sphere  in  which  to  ex- 
pend the  forces  of  their  being.  And  as  you  go  up  in  life,  if  you 
have  nothing  to  expend  your  forces  on,  they  will  find  an  outlet 
somewhere. 

Men  often  say  to  me,  "  How  can  I  control  my  wandering 
thoughts  and  vagrant  imaginations  ?"  God's  way  of  controlling 
these  things  is  to  use  the  forces  of  the  mind  before  they  become 
vagrant  and  abnormal  and  morbid.  And  work  is  God's  bounty.  It 
is  your  good  fortune.  Do  not  let  any  man  repine  because  he  has  to 
work  from  morning  till  night.  It  is  one  of  the  best  things  that 
ever  happened  to  you.  The  damnation  of  thousands  of  young  men 
who  come  to  New  York,  is  that  they  have  nothing  to  do.  They 
very  soon  find  something  evil  to  do,  and  go  down  into  their  graves  be- 
fore they  are  thirty  years  old.  Oh,  the  slaughter  of  young  men 
who  drop  away  in  the  prime  of  life — good,  sweet,  noble  young  men, 
having  in  them  the  capacity  of  becoming  worthy  and  useful  citizens ! 
Not  being  understood,  or  not  being  recognized,  by  men,  and  being 
surrounded  by  wrong  influences,  they  make  mistakes,  and  hav- 
ing made  mistakes  are  discouraged,  and  go  down  one  after 
another.  My  heart  is  sick  wiien  I  go  to  Greemvood.  It  is  like 
reading  the  last  revelations  of  God,  to  go  there  and  see  the  graves 
of  young  men,  and  find  out  their  histories — what  was  their  occupa- 
tion, or  how  they  lived. 

This  strikes  directly  at  the  fantasy  that  leisure  develops  piety. 
Why,  there  is  nothing  more  dangerous  than  a  highly  educated  com- 
munity the  raembei-s  of  which  have  no  legitimate  channel  in  which 
to  pour  out  their  forces. 

As  things  go  with  us,  women  are  generally  more  aesthetically 
educated  than  men  are,  and  men  are  more  practically  educated  than 
women  are.  Thei-e  are  thousands  of  women  in  every  community 
•who  are  large-brained,  large-hearted,  large-forced,  but  who  have 
nothing  to  do.  It  is  undoubtedly  the  divine  intent  that  man  and 
woman  shall  be  married,  and  that  the  household  shall  be  the  gi-eat 
central  institution  of  life  ;  but  in  the  inequalities  of  human  life  and 
society,  it  comes  to  pass  that  there  are  many  women  who  do  not 
find  their  mate — or  not  early :  and  they  live  at  home.  They  are 
readers.  They  think  that  their  father's  wealth  and  standing  make 
it  unnecessary  that  they  should  toil.  Neither  do  they  spin.  And 
there  they  are.  And  if  their  health  is  frail ;  if  the  forces  which  vi- 
brate in  them  are,  comparatively  speaking,  mild,  they  experience  no 


JJV^  SPIRITUAL  LIFE.  153 

inconvenience,  and  live  happily  and  contentedly.  But  if  they  have 
Btrong  and  deep  natures  ;  if  there  is  in  them  a  necessity  of  action,  I 
can  scarcely  conceive  of  any  persons  more  pitiable.  There  are 
longing  thoughts,  vague  yeai-nings,  which  are  often  called  aspira- 
tionSj  but  which  are  the  outgrowths  of  an  intolerable  sense  of  use- 
lessness.  I  do  not  marvel  that  many  and  many  a  great  heart  dashes 
out  into  fiery  dispositions,  when  I  know  the  way  in  which  human 
nature  works.  I  do  not  wonder  that  many  a  noble  nature  comes  to 
detest  life. 

Something  to  do,  occupation,  if  one  has  great  force  of  nature, 
is  indispensable  to  the  highest  form  of  virtue,  to  safety,  and  to  the 
development  of  the  whole  realm  of  spirituality  in  the  human  soul. 
Therefore  we  must  remember,  as  we  carry  up  education,  that  educa- 
tion is  not  enough.  Occupation  must  be  alongside  of  education,  or 
there  will  be  mischiefs  breaking  out  from  our  imperfection.  A  par- 
tial system  of  education  becomes  more  and  more  lamentable  to  the 
end. 

[Can  it  be  so  late !  I  thought  I  had  only  just  begun.  I  have 
finished  only  two  heads  out  of  six.  I  will  not  weary  you  :  I  will 
pass  the  others  by.] 

Sanitary  morality  is  not  enough.  This  looking  at  the  body, 
Avhich  I  have  mostly  dwelt  upon,  is  not  sufficient.  Emphatic  as  I 
have  made  it,  almost  exclusive  as  I  have  made  it,  you  will  miscon- 
ceive the  spirit  in  which  I  am  speaking  to  you  if  you  suppose  that 
I  wish  to  leave  upon  your  minds  the  impression  that  Christian  char- 
acter can  be  developed  by  mere  training  according  to  the  laws  of 
the  body.  This  is  one  sphere,  and  it  is  indispensable  ;  but  it  is  only 
relative  to  a  higher  one.  The  different  elements  of  the  soul  must 
be  trained.  Reflection  ;  self-examination ;  communion  with  God  ; 
heed  to  the  revelation  of  God's  truth ;  faith ;  hope';  love  ;  joy  in  the 
Holy  Ghost — these  are  the  blossoms  of  which  secular  training  is  but 
the  stem.  Nor  is  spirituality  enough.  You  must  do  both  things, 
but  you  must  train  the  man  in  his  higher  nature;  ftid  you  must 
train  him  in  his  lower.  You  must  train  the  higher  in  a  wise  conjunc- 
tion with  the  lower.  You  must  develop  the  nature  of  man  from 
end  to  end,  so  that  he  shall  be  living  harmoniously  with  his  phys- 
ical condition,  with  his  social  condition,  with  his  civil  condition,  as 
well  as  with  his  spiritual  condition. 

In  this  large  conception  of  true  manhood,  piety  will  become  fa- 
miliar, and  fruitful,  and  bountiful,  and  practical,  and  not  difficult.  It 
8  far  more  difficult  for  a  man  to  live  Christianly  with  imperfect 
views  of  duty  and  of  education,  than  it  is  to  take  a  still  higher  ideal 
with  the  full  complement  of  instruments  of  education. 


154  FEYSIGAL  EINDEANGES. 

The  way  is  not  long.  We  ought  not  to  be  discouraged  in  over- 
coming easily  besetting  sins.  Of  all  men,  we  ought  not  to  feel  that 
the  yoke  is  hard  and  that  the  burden  is  heavy.  The  yoke  may  gall 
the  neck,  and  the  burden  may  not  yet  seem  light ;  but  the  result  is 
not  doubtful  to  those  who  are  faithful  to  the  end.  God,  Avith  an 
ever-sympathetic  heart,  and  with  an  eye  that  never  shuts,  is  watch- 
ing his  children  through  all  this  devious  path  ;  alon^this  chequered 
experiment.  God,  who  thinks  more  of  your  manhood  than  you  your- 
self do;  God,  who  loves  you  better  than  you  do  yourself,  is  super- 
vising this  evolution.  And  out  of  mysteries  and  partialisms  and 
enigmas,  will  come  completed  results  which  we  shall  recognize  as 
the  work  .  of  the  all-loving  One.  That  God  who  broods  over  us, 
though  we  have  gone  from  him ;  that  God  who  said  to  Jerusalem, 
"  How  often  would  I  have  gathered  your  children  together  as  a 
hen  gathers  her  chickens  under  her  wings" — that  God  will  give  to 
all  those  Avho  put  their  trust  in  him,  that  help  and  that  direction 
which  will  bring  them  through  all  these  critical  passages  and  scenes, 
and  bring  them  home,  finally,  to  glory. 

When  you  shall  have  cast  off,  sloughed,  that  which  has  been  so 
needful  in  this  world,  but  which  has  drawn  you  into  sin,  then 
how  calmly  will  you  rise  to  the  haven  of  blessedness  above  !  How 
will  you  appear  there  Avithout  spot,  without  blemish,  without  fault ! 
How  lustrous  will  they  be  who  seem  dim-faced  here !  How 
strono",  how  athletic,  forever,  will  they  be  who  have  limped  or 
toiled  slowly  here  ! 

O  pilgrims  ;  burdened  souls  ;  ye  that  are  laboring  under  mis- 
fortunes ;  ye  who  are  traveling  with  difficulty  the  path  toward 
heaven,  hold  on  by  faith  and  patience,  and  hear  the  Saviour  saying, 
and  saying  with  pity,  "  Watch  against  all  the  temptations  that  lure 
the  body  ;  pvay  for  all  the  help  that  comes  through  the  Spirit;  and 
that  to  the  end  !" 

One  golden  hour,  one  sweet  moment,  in  heaven,  will  cast  back  a 
light  of  interpretation  upon  the  dark  places  of  the  earth  ;  and  how 
ever  much  you  may  now  be  sorry  that  you  are  alive,  you  will  never 
in  the  heavenly  land  be  sorry  that  you  have  lived.  And  you  will 
forever  and  forever  bless  and  praise  the  grace  and  glory  of  God, 
when  he  shall  interpret  to  you  what  was  the  meaning  of  your  way- 
faring here. 


m  SPIBITUAL  LIFE.  155 

PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

Blessed  be  thy  name,  Almighty  God,  that  thou  dost  stoop  to  converse 
with  thy  creatures!  Though  we  cannot  hear  thee  speaking  in  the  language 
of  men,  nor  discern  thy  form  by  these  bodily  senses,  thou  dost  communicate 
8o  that  the  inward  man  knows  and  beholds  thee.  Thou  dost  draw  near  to 
that  which  is  hidden  within  us ;  and  by  the  heavenly  fire  thou  dost  qmcken 
it  until  we  discern  things  transcendent.  And  we  rejoice  that  thou  dost  not 
require  us  to  be  perfect ;  that  thou  dost  not  require  the  exact  fulfillment  of 
even  the  things  which  we  promise,  before  we  can  have  thy  love,  and  access 
to  thee.  For  thou  knowest  our  frame,  and  rememberest  that  we  are  dust. 
How  poor  are  we  even  to  conceive  of  noble  things !  and  how  inconsistent  are 
we  in  seeking  them!  How  infinitely  full  of  mistakes  and  faults  have  our 
lives  been,  with  here  and  there  transgressions  that  rise  up,  and,  like  moun- 
tains, stand  upon  the  horizon,  all  the  intervale  being  filled  up  with  the  imper- 
fections and  manifold  sins  of  our  lives. 

Yet  thou  art  our  God.  Thou  art  our  God  because  we  are  sinful.  For  thou 
art  the  Saviour  God.  Thou  art  the  helping  God.  Thou  art  long-suffering, 
slow  to  anger,  abundant  in  mercy,  forgiving  iniquity  and  transgression  and 
Bin.  Blessed  be  thy  name,  that  all  this  grace  and  leniency  is  not  because  thou 
carest  not  for  us,  nor  for  our  character  and  our  best  estate !  Blessed  be  thy 
name,  that  thou  art  desiring  to  bring  us  out  of  our  weakness,  and  out  of 
these  temptations,  these  sins,  and  these  imperfections,  into  thine  own  glori- 
ous likeness !  Therefore  it  is,  that  thou  wilt  not  withhold  from  us  chastise- 
ment ;  that  thou  wilt  not  clear  us  if  we  are  guilty  and  indifferent;  that  thou 
wilt  still  pursue  by  severity  those  who  would  not  be  won  by  mercy. 

We  rejoice  that  the  sovereignty  of  our  life  that  is  to  come  rises  before  thee 
as  we  never  see  it.  We  are  the  sons  of  God.  It  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we 
shall  be.  To  thee  it  is  clear.  The  bright  and  glorious  future  thou  knowest 
altogether.  We  are  groping  in  twilight.  We  gain  ghmpses;  but  they  come 
to  us  only  in  moments  of  temptation,  and  pass  away  again.  We  are  of  the 
earth.  There  is  too  much  of  it  in  these  bodies.  We  are  too  much  addicted 
to  the  things  of  the  world  in  the  midst  of  our  occupations.  They  were  meant 
for  our  upbuilding;  and  yet  we  are  too  apt  to  be  engrossed  by  them. 

We  rejoice  that  thou  art  from  on  high,  and  that  thou  art  perpetually  cor- 
recting our  mistakes,  often  by  strokes,  chastising  us  for  our  good.  Thou  art 
still  calling  us,  and  still  guiding  us,  and  still  waiting- for  us  to  develop.  As 
our  fathers  and  our  mothers  waited  for  us  to  outgrow  our  childhood,  love 
giving  them  strength,  so  thou,  with  greater  love  and  divine  power  dost  wait 
for  all  the  generations  of  men,  and  art  fashioning  them.  If  we  did  not  be- 
lieve this,  our  hearts  would  sink  within  us,  and  we  should  be  in  despair, 

O  Lord  God  of  love  and  mercy,  who  dost  mingle  justice  and  chastisement 
as  a  part  of  thy  providence,  we  believe  that  thou  hast  before  thee  the  welfare 
of  the  human  race,  scattered  as  they  are,  degraded  for  the  most  part,  strug- 
gling with  ten  thousand  infirmities  at  the  best,  with  but  here  and  there  one 
who  walks  with  God  and  knows  the  heavenly  language.  What  wilt  thou  do 
with  this  great  household,  O  thou  God  of  mystery?  We  look  upon  the  face 
of  things;  we  live  from  day  to  day  with  marvehngs,  and  wonderings,  and 
heart-ache ;  but  we  know  that  there  is  mercy,  and  we  know  that  there  is 
love,  and  we  know  that  there  is  life  again,  and  we  know  that  there  is  One 
whose  love  for  the  erring  race  is  such  that  he  gave  his  beloved  Son  to  die  for 
them ;  and  we  know  that  he  drank  the  cup  to  the  very  bitterest  dregs,  even 
when  it  seemed  to  him  that  God  had  utterly  forsaken  him,  enduring,  with 
the  prospect  of  his  own  utter  annihilation,  for  the  sake  of  this  vast  human 
family.  And  we  are  willing  to  trust  such  a  God  with  all  the  mystery  of 
providence,  and  all  the  unsolved  and  insoluble  questions  of  his  government. 


]  5  6       PHYSICAL  EINDBANCES IN  SPIRITUAL  LIFE. 

We  desire,  O  Lord,  not  to  be  moved,  by  our  doubts,  from  tnist  in  thee. 
We  desire  to  be  held  steadfast  to  this  one  center  of  wisdom,  and  the  love  and 
goodness  of  God.  We  desire  to  believe,  not  only  that  thou  art,  but  that  thou 
art  with  thy  creatures ;  and  that  that  which  we  do  not  understand  now,  we 
will  grow  to  an  understanding  of.  For  thou  art  saying  to  us  everywhere. 
What  I  do  now,  ye  know  not,  but  ye  shall  know  hereafter. 

We  pray  that  Ihou  wilt  grant  thy  blessing  to  rest  upon  all  those  who  are 
in  thy  presence  now.  Thou  knowest  what  manner  of  man  each  man  is. 
Thou  knowest  what  are  the  sins  of  each.  Thou  knowest  what  are  the 
desires  of  the  hearts  that  are  open  before  thee — those  that  would  chant 
forth  music,  and  those  who  are  afflicted,  and  whose  tones  are  sorrowful. 
Listen  to  the  unuttered  desires  of  thy  servants.  Be  gracious  to  every  one 
of  them,  and  fulfill  that  which  in  thy  sight  is  best  for  them. 

May  those  who  are  in  darkness  and  in  trouble  find  that  there  is  a  light  to 
which  they  are  drawing  near.  May  it  shine  brighter  and  brighter  as  they 
go  toward  the  path  of  the  just.  May  those  who  are  lost,  and  who  seem  left 
to  themselves,  without  counsel,  or  succor,  know  that  the  God  of  Israel,  the 
God  of  all  the  earth,  is  their  God.  And  though  for  a  time  he  may  seem  to 
hide  his  face,  may  they  never  give  up  to  despondency,  nor  yield  up  that 
courage  and  endurance  which  becometh  men.  May  they  to  the  end  strive 
for  the  things  which  are  right  and  noble. 

We  pray,  O  Lord,  that  thou  wilt  bless  our  households.  Accept  our 
thanksgiving  for  all  the  great  mercies,  and  all  the  sheltering  kindnesses,  and 
all  the  rich  experiences,  which  thou  hast  ministered  unto  us  by  our  com- 
panions; by  our  friends ;  by  our  children  ;  by  all  that  has  made  home  so 
sweet  and  blessed  to  our  thoughts.  Sanctify  all  households.  More  and 
more  may  they  be  as  the  gate  of  heaven.  And  may  whatever  is  malign  and 
selfish,  and  arrogant,  and  hard,  and  wicked  be  cast  out  therefrom.  And 
may  all  that  is  right,  and  sweet,  and  pure,  and  dear,  and  good,  and  refresh- 
ing to  men,  abound  as  in  the  garden  of  the  Lord. 

And  we  pray  that  thy  blessing  may  rest  upon  all  whom  our  thoughts 
follow,  whether  they  be  on  the  sea  or  in  distant  lands,  or  in  remote  portions 
of  our  own  land.  Wilt  thou  enlighten  tnose  who  are  in  trouble.  Help  all 
the  children  of  affliction  everywhere.  And  all  thy  strokes  and  chastise- 
ments whereby  thou  hast  made  men  marvel,  O  Lord,  follow,  we  beseech  of 
thee,  with  benign  providences,  that  all  may  rejoice  that  thou  dost  bind  up 
the  wounds  which  thou  hast  made,  and  heal  where  thou  hast  smitten. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  unite  thy  people  more  and  more  perfectly  in 
confidence  one  with  another,  and  that  all  the  ways  in  which  men  seek  to 
come  unto  God  may  be  ways  cast  up.  May  men  not  fortify  themselves  each 
in  his  own  way,  and  east  javelins  and  darts  one  at  another,  making  eaoh 
other's  way  a  difficult  way,  a  burdened  way,  a  tear-wet  way.  May  each 
leave  the  others  to  follow  the  path  which  thou  hast  ordained  for  them,  and 
sympathize,  and  rejoice  that  there  are  so  many  ways,  and  that  all  of  them 
end  at  the  feet  of  God. 

And  there  at  last  receive  us.  There  at  length  bring  all  wanderers.  There 
grant  that  there  may  be  the  beginning  of  that  new  life  in  wh'ch  is  to  be  no 
sin,  no  sorrow,  no  tears,  no  darkness,  but  everlasting  joy  in  everlasting 
day.  And  to  thy  name  shall  be  the  praise.  Father,  Son  and  Spirit,  for- 
evermore.    Amen. 


IX. 

Relations  of  Physical  Causes  to 
Spiritual  States. 


INVOCATION. 

Accept,  our  Father,  the  grateful  thoughts  and  the  worshiping  feelings 
which  thou  liast  called  forth.  Our  life  is  of  thee,  and  we  are  di'awn  up  into 
thought,  into  feeling,  and  into  gladness,  and  trust,  and  hope,  by  the  solicita- 
tion of  thy  Spirit.  O  our  Father,  make  us  this  morning  to  feel  that  we  are 
thy  children,  and  that  the  Heart  that  governs  the  universe  is  our  Heart.  Be- 
loved of  God,  may  we  know  how  to  rejoice  and  to  strengthen  ourselves  in  all 
duty,  to  trust,  to  love  again,  to  rejoice  in  praise,  and  to  take  joy  in  fellow- 
ship, and  to  serve  thee  with  all  our  heartis.  Bless  to  us,  therefore,  our  gather- 
ing togethej'.  May  the  fellowrliip  of  tliis  house  be  sweet.  May  all  the  ser- 
vices of  the  sanctuary  be  divine  and  spiritual.  Grant  that  we  may  sing  thy 
praise  and  our  joy,  that  we  may  find  thee  in  the  communion  of  prayer,  and 
that  we  may  look  upon  eaeli  other,  and  behold  the  light  of  heaven  resting 
upon  each  other.  Grant  that  all  the  services  in  the  sanctuary  or  at  home 
may  be  divinely  blessed,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  Amen. 
9. 


JIELATIOIS  OF  PHYSICAL  CATJSES 
TO  SPIRITUAL  STATES. 


-^o**- 


"  WatCii  and  pray,  (hat  ye  enter  not  into  temptation :  the  spirit  indeed  is 
willing,  but  the  flesh  is  weak."— Matt.  XXVI.    41. 


There  is  here  a  direct  contrast  made  between  the  human  "body 
and  the  human  soul.  It  is  more  than  an  intimation  that  the  wel- 
fare of  the  one  is  continually  interfered  with  by  the  prevalence  of 
the  other ;  that,  in  other  words,  true  and  noble  manhood  in  the  spirit 
is  dependent  largely  for  its  hindrances  or  its  helps  upon  the  body 
in  which  we  dwell. 

We  are  commanded  to  watch.  It  would  seem  as  if  that  were  a 
command  Avhich  extends  over  all  our  physical  conditions.  And  when 
we  are  commanded,  it  would  seem  as  though  the  command  entered 
into  the  great  moral  realm,  and  had  special  reference  to  tliose  things 
which  belong  to  our  upper  and  higher  nature.  Both  things  are 
indispensable  to  a  true  progress  in  the  Christian  life — namely,  that 
we  should  set  watch  for  all  the  causes  of  hindrance  Avhich  belong  to 
us  as  organized  bodily  creatures  ;  and  that  we  should  also  partake 
of  that  divine  and  spiritual  succor  or  help  which  we  have,  according 
to  the  promises  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  by  the  Holy 
Ghost. 

From  this  passage,  last  Sunday  morning,  we  spoke  of  the  two  sources 
of  influence  from  which  men  derive  helj) — namely,  the  lower  and  the 
higher.  Spiritual  help  is  the  theme  of  ordinary  discourse  from  tlio 
pulpit.  Men  are  instructed  to  seek  for  the  divine  help  when  thev 
are  in  need.  From  the  nature  of  things,  this  is,  and  always  must 
be,  of  transcendent  importance.  But  on  that  very  account,  perhaps, 
men  have  a  disproportionate  amount  of  instruction  in  that  sphei'o 
which  faith  and  prayer  occupy.  For  a  variety  of  reasons  men  have, 
if  anywhere,  been  left  uninstructed  in  regard  to  those  elements  of 
Christian  life  which  depend  upon  man's  physical  economy.  The  re- 
lation of  one's  moral  state  to  his  physical  condition  has  not  been  so 

Sunday  Morning,  Nov.  5, 1871.     Lesson  :  Eoii.  XIV.    Hymns  (Plymouth  Col- 
lection) :  Nos.  40,  8C5. 


1 5  8  BEL  A  TIONS  OF  PHTSIGAL  CA  USES 

generally  taught  as,  with  profit,  it  might  have  been.  Better  views, 
however,  are  dawning.  Better  instruction  is  gradually  gaining 
ground.  We  may  hope,  as  the  result,  by  and  by,  not  only  that  the 
battle  of  life  will  be  more  skillfully  and  surely  fought,  but  that  there 
will  be  a  better  system  of  instruction,  and  that  manhood  itself  will 
become  larger,  more  symmetrical,  richer,  and  more  sure,  in  regard 
to  a  great  proportion  of  the  community. 

I  shall  continue,  to-day,  to  point  out  the  relations  which  physi- 
cal causes  sustain  to  spiritual  states ;  not,  however,  for  the  sake  of 
opening  a  thoroughfare  of  excuses  and  of  palliations  (for  men  love 
to  throw  their  short-comings  upon  their  organization  and  their  na- 
ture), but  to  enable  those  who  honestly  desii'e  to  live  a  Christian 
and  manly  life,  to  remove  the  unsuspected  hindrances,  and  to  secure 
help  from  directions  which  are  not  usually  resorted  to. 

I  have  already  spoken  of  the  right  aim  which  every  one  must 
have  in  order  to  make  any  considerable  progress  in  Christian  life, 
and  of  the  necessity  for  the  the  full  occupation  of  one's  powers.  It 
was  while  discussing  this,  that  our  time  failed  ;  and  there  we  paused. 
And  I  proceed  now  to  speak  of  those  healthy  conditions  of  body 
which  are  indispensable  to  the  right  development  of  Christian  dispo- 
sitions and  Christian  character. 

I  shall  speak  of  the  condition  of  the  body  in  its. relations  to  the 
predominance  of  the  lower  faculties,  to  its  insusceptibility  of  the  finer 
emotions,  to  the  experiences  which  arise  from  the  morbid  conditions 
of  the  body,  and  to  their  efiect,  particularly  on  the  imagination, 
which  is  so  indispensable  to  all  the  higher  forms  of  religious 
growth. 

First,  I  must  caution  you  not  to  confound  simple  health  with 
virtue  or  piety.  A  man  may  be  very  vigorous  in  bone  and  mus- 
cle, full  in  nerve,  and  wholesome  in  all  his  functions,  and  yet  be  very 
selfish  and  very  proud.  Bodily  life  does  not  secure  all  that  a  man 
needs  for  manhood.  It  is  that  which  must  underlie  all  true  proces- 
ses ;  but  the  thing  itself  is  simply  a  Qondition  by  which  you  obtain, 
and  not  the  obtaining.  Morbid  conditions  of  the  body  Avill  inevita- 
bly insure  darkness  of  mind.  They  are  often  the  sources  of  tempta. 
tions ;  and  many  of  the  sins  which  men  fall  into,  and  which  are  most 
harmful  to  their  religious  growth,  may  be  said  to  spring  directly 
from  morbid  conditions  of  their  bodies. 

We  are  not  speaking,  now,  of  absolute  sickness  ;  we  are  speaking 
of  those  thousand  disproportions,  irregularities,  and  harmful  indul- 
gences, which  keep  the  human  body  out  of  vigorous  health,  which 
fill  it  with  trouble,  and  which,  though  they  do  not  prevent  the  pur- 
suits of  ordinary  business,  do  make  them  heavy.     It  is  possible  for 


TO  8PJEITUAL  STATIIS.  159 

a  person  so  to  use  his  body  as  never  to  have  it  in  a  right  condition, 
and  yet  not  be  in  a  state  which  amounts  to  absolute  sickness.  It  is  ? 
not  necessary  that  a  man  should  break  all  the  blades  of  his  knife  in 
order  to  be  knifeless.  If  they  be  dull,  or  if  the  points  be  broken, 
its  usefulness  may  be  entirely  destroyed.  It  is  not  necessary  that  a 
violin  should  be  absolutely  broken  in  order  to  be  spoiled.  If  it  be 
stringless,  or  if  the  strings  be  in  disproportion,  or  if  they  have  been 
so  neglected  that  they  will  not  sound  to  the  bow,  it  is  substantially 
destroyed  for  all  the  purposes  for  which  it  was  made. 

Now,  sickness,  outright,  may  be  or  may  not  be  a  benefit ;  but 
usually  people  are  not  held  to  account  for  that.  Strictly  speaking, 
I  think  there  are  very  few  men  who  carry  themselves  in  a  perfect 
state  of  health.  Men  are  healthy  in  certain  parts,  and  more  or  less 
obstructed  and  enfeebled  in  other  parts.  It  is  not  common  to  find 
a  really,  thoroughly  healthy  man.  I  do  not  mean  that  there  are  not 
men  who  stand  an  examination  for  life  insurance,  which  has  regard 
to  length  of  life ;  but  I  am  speaking  of  the  free  and  joyous  use  by 
men  of  all  their  faculties  ;  as  true  happiness '  depends  upon  their 
activity  in  bodily  conditions.  Few  men,  from  day  to  day,  have  an 
unobstructed,  clear  and  perfect  use  of  themselves.  Certain  parts  of 
men  may  be  bright,  and  other  parts  obscure.  Certain  parts  may  be 
regular,  and  other  parts  morbid.  The  whole  play,  more  or  less,  of 
the  minds  of  men  is  obstructed — and  usually  from  bodily  reasons 
very  largely. 

An  unwholesome  condition  of  the  body  tends  to  draw  a  man's 
thoughts  mainly  to  himself.  It  is  not  possible  for  one  to  be  in  an 
unhealthy  state  without  becoming  an  object  of  his  own  thought,  A 
true,  high,  perfect  condition  of  health  is  one  in  which  man  is  un- 
conscious of  himself  and  his  faculties.  It  is  a  condition  in  which 
one  is  like  perfect  glass,  whose  perfection  consists  in  its  being  so 
transparent  that  it  does  not  look  like  glass,  nor  anything  else, — so 
that  it  can  be  seen  through  without  obstruction.  Perfect  health 
usually  sets  a  man  free  from  the  consciousness  of  himself.  "What- 
ever mars  health,  whatever  dims  it,  whatever  hinders  it,  whatever 
produces  aches,  and  annoyances,  and  irritations,  draws  a  man's 
thought  in  upon  himself.  And  it  is  one  of  the  least  profitable  of 
the  occupations  in  which  a  man  can  engage,  to  think  of  himself  in 
any  such  way  as  a  valetudinarian  thinks  of  himself.  To  study  the 
structure  of  the  mind  may  be  beneficial ;  but  what  a  wretched  con- 
dition is  that  man  in,  who,  in  a  circuit  of  pleasui-e,  and  in  the  midst 
of  acquaintances,  is  perpetually  thinking  of  the  corn  that  aches  on 
his  foot !  Whatever  is  going  on  about  him,  it  is  himself,  in  some 
mean  relation,  that  he  is  obliged  to  think  ol     How  many  men  there 


160  BELATIONS  OF  FEYSIGAL  CA  USES 

are  who,  without  being  positively  sick  or  under  a  physician's  care, 
are  in  such  a  condition  of  mind  that  their  thoughts  are  perpetually 
drawn  to  their  own  state,  and  hang  heavily  and  moodily  over  their 
own  lives. 

There  is  no  such  thing  as  a  buoyant  Christian  experience  where 
a  morbid  condition  of  the  body  is  perpetually  drawing  a  man's 
thoughts  away  from  others,  and  from  the  sphere  of  activity,  A 
man's  thoughts  are  consciously  directed  upon  himself  when  he  has 
a  disordered  body.  It  stirs  up  irritations,  jealousies,  and  morbid 
appetites. 

It  is  often  supposed  that  Satan  tempts  men  in  these  morbid 
states.  Nor  do  I  doubt  it.  But  the  instrument  by  which  lie  usually 
tempts  men  is  a  disordered  body.  Men  with  indigestion  are  almost 
always  tempted  of  the  devil.  Men  Avhose  nervous  system  is  out  of 
order  have  any  number  of  fiends  tempting  them  besides  the  magis- 
ter.  The  morbid  states  of  the  system  have  an  elective  affinity  for 
the  basilar  instincts  and  appetites  of  men ;  and  all  the  passions  are 
in  morbid  conditioris ;  and  all  the  lower  animal  feelings  Avhich- we 
have  in  common  with  the  brute  race,  are  fevered,  stirred  up,  disor- 
dered ;  and  out  of  them  come  ten  thousand  mists  and  temptations. 
And  it  is  almost  impossible  for  a  man  who  has  any  such  conditions 
to  bring  forth  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit. 

No  amount  of  moral  or  spiritual  motive  alone  will  help  one 
whose  ailments  are  physical.  ..  We  may  spiritually  assist ;  we  may 
corroborate  ;  Ave  may  complement ;  but  if  men  are  morally  tempted; 
if  morally  they  suffer  ;  if  their  hopes  are  partial ;  if  their  fears  are 
many ;  if  their  faith  is  small ;  if  their  trust  is  little ;  if  their  con- 
sciences are  burdened ;  if  it  is  dark  to  them ;  if  they  are  discour- 
'  aged  and  desponding,  it  is  quite  in  vain  for  them  to  attempt  to  lift 
the  burden  by  the  simple  act  of  prayer.  Not  that  prayer  is  in- 
valid ;  not  that  prayer  is  not  answered ;  not  that  prayer  is  not  nor- 
mal under  certain  conditions  ;  but  prayer  in  circumstances  of  physi- 
cal unhealth  is  not  sufficient. 

Let  me  specify  the  methods  by  which  men  hinder  their  moral 
clarity.  First,  they  do  it  by  diet.  I  think  that  either  by  their  ig- 
norance or  their  immoderation  in  diet,  men  contrive  to  set  over 
against  themselves  an  amount  of  difficulty  Avhich  all  the  prayers 
they  can  utter  are  not  a  match  for.  I  think  that  men  over-eat  their 
prayers.  You  Avould  not  think  that  amanwho,  having,  Avith  a  sharp 
instrument  cleaved  off  his  fingers,  Avas  Avise  or  sensible  if,  instead  of 
calling  for  surgical  help  to  bind  up  the  wounds,  he  should  pray  that 
God  Avould  put  back  his  fingers  Avhere  they  Avere.  Men  are  to  piay ; 
but  they  are  to  Avatch  as  Avell  as  pray.     They  are  to  take  care  of  their 


TO  SPIBITUAL  STATES.  161 

bodily  conditions,  as  well  as  pray  for  spiritual  states.  Both  must 
cooperate  and  work.  Men  are  to  touch  the  very  center  of  sense ; 
and  through  that  they  are  to  reach  all  the  higher  moral  emotions. 
It  is  essential,  therefore,  that  care  be  exercised  in  regard  to  the  use 
to  which  men  put  their  stomachs.  It  is  quite  in  vain  for  a  man  to  eat 
so  that  he  is  dyspeptic,  and  at  the  same  time  attempt  to  live  in  a  state 
of  grace.  Over-nutrition,  in  various  ways,  in  a  body  strong  enough 
to  digest  food,  is  perpetually  producing  an  abnormal  state  of  the 
blood,  and  carrying  things  to  immoderation,  exciting  the  passions, 
and  filling  the  body  full  of  feverish  conditions.  There  are  many 
persons  who  are  believed  to  be  children  of  grace,  but  who  make  it 
a  point,  once  a  day,  at  any  rate,  to  eat  themselves  into  a  fair  con- 
dition of  stupidity.  Do  you  suppose  a  man  who  spends  the  whole 
day  in  business,  plethoric,  over-bloated,  almost  obese  from  constant 
feeding,  and  who,  when  the  blessed  hour  at  last  comes  that  be  can 
lay  aside  the  duties  of  the  office  or  the  store,  goes  home  to  his  hour 
or  hour  and  a  half  of  gourmandizing,  eating  till  he  can  scarcely  see, 
purple  with  blood,  somnolent  all  the  evening,  and  snoring  himself, 
at  last,  through  his  devotions,  to  his  bed,  and  does  this  every  day — 
do  you  suppose  such  a  man  can  grow  in  grace  ?  or  do  you  suppose 
that  out  of  such  habits  as  his  can  come  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit  of 
God  ?  Do  you  recollect  what  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit  are  ?  It  may 
be  worth  while  for  us  to  carry  these  along  in  our  memory,  as  we 
proceed.     They  are  recorded  in  Galatians : 

"  The  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love,  joy,  peace,  loDg-suffering,  gentleness, 
goodness,  faith,  meekness,  temperance." 

Now,  how  can  these,  which  are  really  the  fruits  of  the  higher 
faculties,  and  in  their  most  wholesome  conditions,  exist,  or  even  be 
known,  where  there  is  gluttonous  stufiing  ? 

But  there  are  many  persons  that  are  not  hon  vivants,  who  habit- 
ually over-eat  wjthout  knowing  it  ;  who  follow  their  appetite,  and 
are  caught  by  it  as  a  man  is  caught  in  the  race-way  of  a  mill.  They 
eat  till  they  are  full,  and  more  than  full.  They  eat  beyond  the 
power  of  wholesome  digestion.  They  eat  beyond  the  want  of  sup- 
ply in  their  system.  They  eat  with  an  eagerness,  with  a  rashness, 
with  an  ignorance,  that  every  day  lowers  the  tone  of  their  health, 
and  every  day  obscures  the  clarity  of  their  mind.  They  are  obliged 
to  work  up  against  their  own  blood.  It  is  back-Avater  on  the  wheel. 
There  is  many  and  many  a  man  who  is  a  good  man  as  the  world 
goes,  who  is  temperate  in  many  respects,  and  who  gets  along  very 
well  so  far  as  the  government  of  his  passions  is  concerned  ;  but  who, 
after  all,  keeps  himself  in  a  low  mental  condition  all  the  time  by 
over-eatinff. 


162  BEL  A  TIONS  OF  PHYSICAL  CA  USJEI8 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  many  men  who,  in  this  condition, 
have  discovered  their  mistake,  and  recognized  the  evil  of  it,  and 
corrected  it,  and  cleared  off  continents  of  trouble,  and  facilitated 
every  process  of  life,  i-eturning  sweetness  to  their  dispositions  that 
before  were  acrid,  simply  by  a  judicious  diet. 

Now,  in  this  respect,  it  takes  three  men  to  make  a  Christian — 
first,  the  principal,  the  man  himself  ;  second  his  doctor  ;  and  third, 
his  minister.  And  it  seems  to  me  that  one  of  the  most  important 
elements,  that  could  be  secured,  would  be  the  putting  the  man  into 
possession  of  an  exact  knowledge  of  what  his  system  needs.  Because 
what  one  man  needs  another  does  not  need.  Too  little  for  you  is  too 
much  for  me,  it  may  be.  The  want  of  physiological  knowledge  is 
such,  among  people,  that  it  is  not  surprising  that  in  many  instances 
they  mistake,  or  do  not  know.  But  it  is  very  desirable  that  a  man 
should  know  how  much  he  needs,  and  on  what  principle  he  eats,  and 
for  what  purpose  he  eats. 

I  find  many  who  are  extremely  abstemious  ;  and  I  say  to  them^ 
"  You  suffer  from  under  nutrition.  You  are  naturally  slim  ;  you 
make  blood  imperfectly  ;  it  is  not  rich  ;  ^ou  are  white,  and  long, 
and  thin,  and  cold  ;  you  tend  to  asceticism  ;  and  you  are  forever 
afraid  of  that  which  is  withovit  the  least  temptation  to  you — namely, 
over-indulgence  of  the  animal.  You  need  more  animal.  You  are 
too  heavy  for  the  beast  you  ride."  Under  such  circumstances,  more, 
and  not  less,  would  be  a  benefit. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  many  men  who  are  really  honest  in 
their  endeavors  to  be  right  and  to  do  right,  but  who  have  so  much 
to  contend  with  that  they  fail.  There  are  men  who  ought  not  to  eat 
flesh  oftener  than  once  a  month.  There  are  men  who  are  over- 
stimulated  all  the  time.  There  are  men  who,  if  they  would  abridge 
their  diet,  and  change  the  nature  of  it,  leaving  off  stimulations  and 
meats,  would  find  that  almost  all  their  difficulties  and  temptations 
would  go  away. 

Under-nutrition,  or  over-nutrition,  is  the  cause  of  a  thousand 
envies,  a  thousand  jealousies,  a  thousand  aberrations,  a  thousand 
obscurations,  a  thousand  difficulties  and  infelicities.  All  these  things 
ai"e,  after  all,  but  the  working  out  of  natural  laws  as  God  has  infixed 
them  in  the  human  body.  These  things  should  be  better  under- 
stood, and  more  wisely  pi-acticed. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  sins  which  spring  from  unwise  nutrition. 

There  is  also  a  great  hindrance  to  right  living  and  manly  conduct  in 

the  sins  of  stimulation.      I  do  not  believe,  ordinarily  speaking,  that 

to  stimulate  by  alcoholic  drinks  or  narcotics  of  any  kind,  is  wise  or 

"^afe.     I  do  not  believe  that  men  in  an  ordinary  state  of  health  need 


TO  SPIRITUAL  STATES.  163 

these  things,  or  can  take  them,  even  slenderly  or  occasionally,  with- 
out disturbing  the  equipoise  of  their  mind,  and  doing  themselves 
essential  damage.  I  apprehend  that  a  great  deal  of  the  trouble  of 
Christians  who  indulge  in  the  use  of  stimulants  may  be  traced  to 
this  source.  It  leads  to  a  perversion  of  the  whole  state  of  the 
nervous  system.  If  a  man  be  addicted  to  ordinary  vinous  stimulants, 
it  is  not  a  question  whether  abstractly  he  has  a  right  to  indulge  in 
them,  nor  is  it  an  abstract  question  of  benefit  or  inj  ury  :  it  is  a  ques- 
tion of  nervous  moderation,  and  of  clarity,  and  of  piety  itself.  Not 
only  does  the  use  of  alcoholic  stimulants  obfuscate  the  mind,  but  it 
irritates  the  system,  and  keeps  it  on  such  an  edge  that  it  is  subject 
to  incursions  of  thoughts  and  feelings  which  are  unwholesome.  It 
affects  the  whole  nervous  system  in  such  a  way  that  it  is  not  wise. 

That  there  are  persons  who  are  substantially  invalids,  who  have 
chronic  fevers,  or  something  of  the  kind,  and  who,  under  the  phy- 
sician's perscription,  may  with  profit  make  use  of  these  stimulants, 
I  do  not  deny.  I  am  not  speaking  of  such  cases,  I  am  speaking  of 
persons  who  are  in  health.  And  I  do  not  believe  it  is  right  for  such 
persons  to  make  use  of  alcoholic  drinks,  and  thus  render  them- 
selves incapable  of  maintaining  their  moral  sense,  or  the  clarity  and 
facility  of  their  Christian  experience. 

I  have  long  been  of  the  opinion  that  if  a  man  is  endeavoring  to 
live  a  Christian  life,  unless  he  can  persuade  himself  to  renounce 
stimulants  he  cannot  succeed.  I  do  not  mean  that  the  use  of  stimu- 
lants is  necessarily  in  and  of  itself  a  sin  ;  but  I  believe  that  it  so  dis- 
turbs the  regular  operation  of  the  mental  economy  that  men  fail  to 
see  or  feel  the  truth  as  they  must  see  and  feel  it  in  order  to  be  truly 
spiritual  Christians. 

And  that  which  is  true  in  respect  to  alcholic  drinks,  I  believe  to 
be  true  in  respect  to  tobacco.  I  believe  that  many  and  many  a  man's 
life  is  obscured  and  made  useless  or  wretched  by  the  use  of  tobacco. 
I  believe  that  many  and  many  a  man  smokes  himself  out  of  grace, 
and  chews  himself  out  of  grace.  I  believe  that  many  and  many  a 
man  is  a  nuisance,  not  only  to  himself,  but  to  his  guardian  angels 
and  his  friends,  by  his  addiction  to  tobacco.  And  while  I  would  not 
immeasurably  denounce  its  use,  I  would  say  to  every  Christian 
man,  It  is  worth  your  while  seriously  to  consider  this  matter,  it 
not  from  a  point  of  benevolence  or  refined  sense,  from  the  still 
higher  point  of  conscience  and  morality.  It  is  worth  your  while 
to  ask  whether  you  do  not  narcotize  yourself  so  that  grace  has  no 
fair  chance  with  you. 

And  that  which  is  true  in  respect  to  these  special  stimulants,  I 
suppose  to  be  true  in  respect  to  many  others.    Medicines  are  often 


164  EELATI0N8  OF  PHYSICAL  CAUSES 

of  the  nature  of  stimulants.  They  excite  the  nervous  system.  The 
nervous  system  is  that  part  of  a  man  by  which  he  thinks  and  feels ; 
and  it  is  kept  out  of  balance  and  out  of  clarity  by  the  use  of  medi- 
cated stimulants.  And  I  do  not  think  that  men  can  be  hearty, 
indomitable,  clear-headed,  happy  Christian  men,  in  the  full  power  of 
manhood,  who  are  accustomed  to  deal  so  foully  by  their  bodies  as 
they  do  where  these  stimulants  are  resorted  to,  whether  the  indul- 
gence be  from  ignorance,  or  against  light  and  knowledge. 

Obscurations  which  follow  excessive  nervous  exhaustion  are  such 
as  ought  to  be  studied  and  ai^preciated  by  all  who  are  endeavoring 
to  live  a  wholesome  Christian  life.  We  ought  to  know  that  there 
is  in  every  person  the  power  of  generating  but  a  given  amount 
of  nervous  force  ;  and  that  if  this  force  be  expended,  it  is  all  that 
the  man  can  normally  have.  If  the  expenditure  is  carried  forward 
to  any  considerable  degree  afterward  by  vehement  taxation,  there 
invariably  will  occur  a  reactionary  state. 

In  the  reactionary  conditions  of  men,  as  the  result  of  over- 
exhaustion  and  the  excessive  use  of  nervous  force,  there  is  a  whole 
realm  of  casuistry.  Who  does  not  know  the  dark  hour  which  usually 
follows  the  gayety  and  dissipation  of  great  parties  ?  Oh,  how 
different  life  looks,  how  different  friendship  looks,  and  how  different 
patriotism  is,  before  and  after  twenty-four  hours  of  excessive  tax- 
ation !  And  how  real  spiritual  things  are  to  a  man  who  is  whole- 
some, and  is  in  the  full  power  of  health,  and  is  sensitive  in  every 
part.  We  are  never  so  little  skeptical  as  when  we  are  at  the  very 
summit  and  acme  of  balanced  and  regulated  health.  In  other  words, 
when  we  touch  the  top  ot  our  manhood,  when  we  are  in  our  highest 
and  best  condition,  then  we  take  hold  most  firmly  upon  the  invisible ; 
and  we  never  are  such  doubters  and  such  unbelievers  as  when, 
having  done  violence  to  the  economy  of  our  body,  we  have  come 
into  reactionary  states.  When  we  are  in  eclipse  by  reason  of  the 
abuse  of  ourselves,  then  we  are  most  tempted  to  unbelief,  to  com- 
plaints, and  to  sins. 

Frequently  when  Christian  persons  have  been  in  a  round  of  ex- 
cessive enjoyment,  and  have  run  through  their  whole  power  of 
resiliency,  and  have  drawn  upon  the  future,  and  have  come  by  re- 
action into  hours  of  obscurity  or  of  twilight,  they  attempt  by  fast- 
ing and  prayer  to  restore  the  balance  of  their  disturbed  nervous 
system.  Fasting  is  very  good  in  its  way,  and  prayer  is  very  good 
in  Us  way  ;  but  this  is  not  the  right  spot  for  them. 

If  a  man  has  just  come  in  from  a  campaign,  soiled  and  grimmed 
with  the  dust  of  a  hundred  miles  of  march,  it  is  all  in  vain  for  him 
to  pray  that  he  may  be  clean.     Let  him'  go  into  the  river,  or  into  a 


TO  SPIBITUAL  STATES.  165 

bath,  and  wash  himsel£  That  will  make  him  clean.   Prayer  will  come 
in  better  afterward. 

When  a  man  is  exhausted  in  nervous  force,  that  is  not  the  time 
for  him  to  pray,  and  wonder  why  God  hides  himself  from  him. 
Recuperate.  Rest.  Restore  the  equilbriura.  Pray,  if  you  please, 
on  your  way  up  to  it ;  but  remember  that  it  is  coming  back  to  obe- 
dience, to  natural  law,  and  restoring  your  body  to  a  wholesome  con- 
dition, which  is  to  give  you  again  peace  and  quiet  with  yourself  and 
with  God. 

So  it  is  with  men  who  are  excessively  taxed  in  business.  There 
are  some  men  who  seem  incapable  of  being  "  used  uj),"  in  the 
familiar  language  of  society.  The  day  has  not  hours  enough  to  take 
away  all  their  power  of  generating  strength.  And  they  are  fortu- 
nate. But  there  are  many  pei'sons  who  cannot  bear  the  pressure  of 
one  day  without  rest  and  recuperation.  And  yet  they  are  caught  in 
the  whirl  and  stream  of  affairs,  and  are  driven  to  intemperance — not 
intemperance  in  food  and  drhik,  but  intemperance  in  work.  They 
ransack  and  exhaust  themselves  ;  and  then  they  marvel  why  the 
revelations  of  ti'uth  are  not  clearer  to  them ;  why  they  do 
not  enjoy  the  society  of  Christians  better ;  why  religious  things  are 
not  more  congenial  to  them.  But  it  is  no  more  a  marvel  than  that 
men  who  are  asleep  do  not  hear,  or  that  men  who  are  dead  do  not 
speak. 

And  that  which  is  true  of  excitements  in  pleasure  and  business, 
is  just  as  true  of  religious  excitement.  This  is  a  point  Avhich 
needs,  not  only  a  careful,  but  a  full  and  frank  explanation.  It  is  just 
as  possible  for  a  man  to  be  dissipated  in  religious  feeling,  as  in  any 
other  feeling. 

{  So  you  may  exhaust  the  source  of  nervous  influence  that  is  laid 
up  in  your  constitution  by  excessive  religious  excitement.  Excess 
in  that,  as  in  any  other  direction,  is  dissipation.  Men,  by  over-addic- 
tion to  meetings,  by  those  social  excitements  which  are  the  life  and 
power  and  joy  of  religious  meetings,  by  an  excess  of  feeling,  out  of 
proportion  and  out  of  season,  may  exhaust  their  nervous  influence, 
and  find  themselves  in  profound  darkness,  without  hope,  and  without 
success  in  prayer  to  God.  But,  as  they  lost  their  hope  while  per- 
forming their  religious  duties,  they  do  not  dream  that  it  can  be  pos- 
sible for  them  to  have  been  violating  a  natural  law.  And  yet,  a  man 
can  go  to  meeting  too  much,  and  sing  too  much,  and  pray  too  much. 
A  man  can  be  too  much  excited  about  his  soul.  If  the  measure  of 
excitement  were  the  measure  of  safety,  then  there  would  be  no 
danger  in  this  direction ;  but  if  it  is  true — and  it  is — that  too  much 
addiction   to  the  matter  of  a  man's  salvation  not  only  fails  to  ac- 


166  BELATIONS  OF  PHYSICAL  CA  USJE8 

compHsh  that  end,  but  hinders  it,  then  excessive  religious  excitement 
is  not  wise.  All  the  reactions  which  come  from  anxiety,  from 
uncertainty,  and  from  oscillation  between  hope  and  fear ;  all  excita- 
tions which  come  from  acute  sorrow,  from  bereavements,  and  from 
those  ten  thousand  influences  of  life  which  exhaust  the  finer  feel- 
ings— these  are  very  largely  causes  of  religious  deprivation — the 
want  of  vivid  religious  feeling,  and  the  want  of  real  religious  enjoy- 
ment. 

One  great  mischief  arising  from  states  of  mind  induced  in  this 
way,  is,  that  persons  attempt  to  reinstate  themselves  by  rousing 
themselves  up.  Thus  they  oppose  a  violent  resistance  to  this 
tendency,  and  increase  the  mischief. 

If  a  person  has  already  overacted  cerebrally,  and  if  the  result  is 
a  loAv  and  obscure  production  of  thought  and  feeling,  the  remedy  is 
not  to  think  or  feel.  It  is  to  rest ;  to  take  relaxation ;  to  turn  away 
from  that  which  has  exhausted  him.  That  is  the  cure.  But  how 
many  times  are  persons  who,  from  watching  or  over-exertion,  from 
visiting  from  house  to  house,  from  going  here  and  there  to  console 
and  pray  with  those  who  are  in  affliction — how  maiiy  times  are  such 
pe-rsons  at  last  exhausted  !  They  themselves  think  that  they  are 
under  the  temptation  of  the  devil ;  and  they  give  themselves  to 
prayer  and  to  reading  God's  word  ;  or  they  shut  themselves  up  in 
their  closet.  And  so  they  heighten  the  mischief.  They  exhaust 
that  which  is  too  far  gone  already.  Recuperation  requires  that 
they  should  restore  the  body,  or  the  nervous  system,  to  its  normal 
condition.  And  with  the  restoration  of  health  will  be  the  disappear- 
ance of  all  these  temptations,  of  darkness,  of  the  various  mischiefs 
which  seem  to  perplex  the  mind. 

We  must,  then,  enlarge  our  conception  of  true  piety.  It  fs  not 
a  certain  something  which  a  person  puts  on  himself  outside  of  his 
body.  Grace  is  revealed  as  a  gift  of  God.  It  is  true  that  there  is 
a  gift  of  the  salvation  which  is  brought  to  men.  It  is  true  that  our 
good  is  wrought  in  us.  But  it  is  equally  true  that  when  God  works 
upon  a  heart  or  a  soul,  he  works  according  to  the  laws  of  man 
whom  he  has  created.  The  laws  of  the  body  and  mind  and  soul 
are  regulated  of  God;  and  if  we  are  to  have  divine  help,  we  must 
have  it  in  consonance  with,  in  obedience  to,  those  great  laws  which 
are  laid  down  in  our  manhood. 

We  aim  at  a  perfecfman  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  this  demands  com- 
pliance with  all  the  laws  of  our  body,  our  mind,  our  heart  and  our 
soul.  And  no  man  can  be  a  perfect  Christian  who  is  unsymmetrical. 
No  man  can  abuse  his  body  and  soul,  and  have  full  play  of  grace. 
No  man  can  set  at  naught  the  obvious  laws  of  the  mind  and  yet 


TO  SPIRITUAL  STATES.  167 

have  clarity  of  mind,  and  the  fruit  of  right-thinking.  No  man  can 
abuse  those  conditions  on  which  emotion  depends,  and  have 
Bweet  and  tranquil  emotions.  No  man  can  set  at  defiance  the  law 
of  God,  not  as  written  on  Sinai  or  on  Calvary,  but  as  written  in 
himself,  and  yet  be  at  one  with  God — with  the  Son  and  with  the 
Father.  The  condition  is  health — health  of  body,  health  of  soul, 
health  of  the  whole  spiritual  realm. 

"  When  we  are  called  to  great  and  absorbing  occupations,"  men 
may  say,  "  how  is  it  possible  for  us  to  obey  these  laws  ?  When  we 
are  placed  in  circumstances  where  we  cannot  help  ourselves ;  when 
we  are  situated  so  that  a  great  deal  is  demanded  of  us,  as  in  times 
of  war,  or  in  peril,  or  in  the  conduct  of  a  great  business ;  when  we 
are  placed  where,  like  a  wheel  in  a  vast  machine,  we  are  not  at  lib- 
erty to  stop,  how  shall  we  live  religiously  ?"  I  reply  that  a  man  in 
such  a  case  must  dedicate  his  business  to  the  Lord.  His  business 
must  be  his  religion.  Through  that  he  must  pour  out  his  gracious 
affections.  He  must  accept  his  business  at  the  hands  of  God,  and 
make  it  his  sanctuary,  and  be  a  Chi'istian  as -he  goes  along,  and  not 
wait  for  reactionary  hours.  Under  such  circumstances  it  is  quite  in 
vain  for  him  to  have  devotional  periods  if  he  takes  the  after  hours 
of  the  day.  He  must  begin  the  day  with  prayer,  if  he  would  have 
a  clear  view  of  God,  of  Christ  Jesus,  and  of  heavenly  things. 
These  must  take  precedence  of  all  other  things.  For,  when  once  he 
is  beyond  the  threshold  of  his  own  home,  the  storm  catches  him, 
and  he  can  no  longer  find  pause  in  which  to  pray,  except  that  occa- 
sionally he  may  utter  an  ejaculatory  prayer.  In  the  case,  therefore, 
of  those  who  are  in  the  providence  of  God  necessarily  intensely 
occupied,  their  devotions  must  precede  their  work,  and  their  work 
must  be  a  means  of  grace,  along  such  paths,  and  in  such  occupa- 
tions, that  they  shall  evince  patience  and  sympathy  and  kindness 
and  benevolence  by  their  business,  and  through  it. 

A  vast  amount  of  the  temptation  by  which  men  suffer  is  wrought 
through  the  body  by  bad  living,  and  will  be  resisted  by  a  wise 
obedience  to  physical  laws.  This  fact  has  given  rise  to  a  shallow 
and  superficial  school  of  teaching  that  holds  that  if  men  take  care  of 
their  bodies,  everything  else  will  take  cax-e  of  itself.  I  say,  These 
things  ought  ye  to  have  done,  hut  not  to  have  left  the  other  things 
undone.  Watch  for  the  health  of  the  body  ;  but  do  not  fall  into 
the  mistake  of  supposing  that  when  you  have  regulated  your  bodily 
powers,  and  brought  your  whole  physical  constitution  into  a  health- 
ful and  normal  condition,  you  have  only  to  wait  for  the  evolution  of 
manhood.     Christian  manhood  is  that  for  which  a  man  must  stand 


168  BELATI0N8  OF  PHYSICAL  CA  US:E8 

and  labor  and  suffer.  It  is  an  ideal  which  cannot  be  approached 
without  more  help  than  inheres  in  man.  We  must  take  care  of 
those  bodily  conditions  out  of  which  spring  mischief.  We  must 
look  after  those  elements  which  bring  health.  We  must  watch 
against  temptation,  and  we  must  lift  up  our  hearts  in  prayer  for  the 
accomplishment  of  all  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit — of  gentleness,  and 
meekness,  and  forbearance,  and  love,  and  faith,  and  hope.  In  order 
to  secure  these,  we  need  that  divine  help  which  prayer  brings  to 
every  man  who  is  in  a  condition  to  receive  it.  Watch  and  pray. 
The  spirit  is  willi7ig.     Thefiesh  it  is  that  is  weak. 

When  all  these  condiions  are  met,  then  we  may  expect  Chris- 
tian experiences  to  be  bright  and  clear.  Until  they  are  met,  I  not 
only  do  not  marvel  that  persons  enjoy  so  little,  but  I  do  not  believe 
there  is  half  as  much  Christian  enjoyment  as  people  make  believe 
that  there  is.  We  say  a  great  many  things  because  we  have  become 
used  to  saying  them.  I  hear  men  in  meetings  give  their  experience, 
and  tell  how  happy  they  are  ;  but  I  do  not  believe  they  are  so  happy 
as  they  claim  to  be.  I  look  into  their  lives,  and  do  not  see  evidence  of 
as  much  joy  as  they  tell  of  having.  But  I  can  understand  the  amiable 
weakness  which  leads  many  men  to  lay  claim  to  more  happiness  than 
they  really  experience.  They  feel  that  they  are  praising  the  grace  of 
God  when  they  say  that  it  makes  them  happy.  Men  tell  how  joy 
came  to  their  souls  when  they  were  converted.  I  do  not  doubt  that. 
Some  say  that  it  has  never  left  them.  I  suppose  this  is  true  of  some. 
Some  are  very  fortunate  in  this  respect.  They  are  elected  to  it  in 
their  very  birth,  they  inherit  such  health  and  such  balanced  organ- 
izations. The  virtue  and  piety  of  twenty  generations  have  come 
down  to  them.  They  came  into  life  with  a  priceless  portion.  And 
they  are  very  happy,  I  doubt  not.  But  taking  people  as  I  see  them 
in  life,  they  are  not  all,  or  nearly  all,  happy  in  consequence  of  re- 
ligion. I  think,  on  the  other  hand,  that  noc  half  of  our  capacity  for 
happiness  is  met. 

I  am  not  speaking  of  that  imaginative  happiness  of  which  we 
are  susceptible  in  a  higher  state  of  existence.  I  am  making  a  lower 
estimate — one  which  does  not  transcend  the  possibilities  of  the  reahn 
in  which  we  are  living.  And  I  say  that  a  Christian  man  is  one  out 
of  whom  music  should  be  wrung.  But  most  Christians  are  like  an 
old  piano,  whose  works  are  very  rusty,  some  of  whose  strings  are 
broken,  and  from  which  many  of  the  trackers  are  gone.  "  But," 
you  may  say,  "  this  is  an  instrument  so  far  as  the  shape  is  con- 
cerned ;  so  far  as  the  sounding-board  is  concerned ;  so  far  as  all  the 
screws  are  concerned."     Yes  j  but  it  is  in  such  a  condition  that  not 


TO  SPIRITUAL  STATUS.  169 

even  Beethoven  could  bring  melody  out  of  it.  For  it  is  necessary 
that  there  should  be  more  than  a  master  :  there  must  be  an  instru- 
ment that  has  some  adaptation  to  the  use  to  which  it  is  to  be  ap- 
plied. If  the  bass  strings  are  broken,  or  the  tenor  strings  are  bro- 
ken, or  the  treble  strings  are  broken  ;  if  it  gives  forth  a  tinny  sound ; 
if  it  is  racked,  or  disjointed,  or  out  of  sorts,  it  is  a  very  poor  instru- 
ment. 

Yet,  even  such  an  instrument  may  be  brought  into  such  a  condi- 
tion that  music  can  be  evolved  from  it.  From  those  old  spinets 
which  have  come  down  from  our  great  great  grandfathers,  if  taken 
and  dusted,  and  repaired  and  restrung,  and  brought  up  to  ,tune,  and 
then  manipulated  by  the  hands  of  skill — even  from  those  old  rack-o'- 
bones  might  be  brought  out  something  worth  one's  hearing.  And 
on  poor,  old,  feeble,  miserable  men,  if  grace  puts  them  m  order, 
tunes  may  be  played  that  are  worth  hearing. 

But  if  it  be  some  grand  instrument — an  instrument  that  is  cre- 
ated by  a  man  of  genius  (and  it  takes  a  genius  to  make  an  instru- 
ment that  a  genius  can  play  on) ;  and  if  it  is  handled  by  a  musician 
who  is  worthy  of  it,  how  diiferent  is  the  music  which  is  produced 
from  that  which  comes  from  an  instrument  which  has  lost  its  tone 
by  misuse,  or  by  disuse,  which  is  misuse.  And  how  different  when 
grace  brings  men  into  tune  again,  or,  to  drop  the  figure,  when  all 
their  faculties  come  into  harmony  and  unison,  will  be  the  fruits 
which  are  wrought  out  in  their  lives,  from  the  fruits  wrought  out 
in  the  lives  of  men  whose  faculties  are  in  a  perpetual  state  of  discord. 

The  soul  of  man  was  meant  to  be  full  of  power  and  joy.  There 
is  nothing  that  is  so  wonderfully  created  as  the  human  soul.  There 
is  in  it  the  outlook  of  eternity.  There  is  something  of  God  in  it. 
There  are  echoes  in  it  of  the  far-off  land.  We  are  infinite  in  the  fu- 
ture, though  we  are  finite  in  the  past ;  and  we  reach  on  and  on  toward 
the  things  that  are  to  come ;  and  there  is  the  prophecy  of  them  in 
many  already. 

My  mocking-bird  has  been  moulting,  and  he  lost  his  song ;  but  he 
is  beginning  to  whisper  it  over  again  to  himself.  He  is  making  here 
and  there  a  scattered  note.  And  that  is  the  prophecy  of  the  full- 
swelling  song  by  another  month,  if  the  bird  has  proper  care,  and  is 
rightly  fed.  I  hear  the  full  voice  in  every  one  of  these  tinkling 
warblers. 

So  the  human  soul  that  has  lost  its  voice,  and  is  moulting  in  the 
lower  sphere,  is  beginning  to  come  to  it  again,  as  we  see  by  its  joys 
and  aspirations. 

"  It  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be." 


1 70  EELAIIONS  OF  PHYSIC AL  CA  USES 

Yes,  it  does,  in  spots.  The  whole  of  it  does  not,  but  something 
of  it  does. 

Wonderful  creatures  men  are — for  littleness ;  for  meanness  ;  for 
dirtiness.  Wonderful  they  are  for  v/ickedness,  for  deceitfulness,  for 
cruelty.  Wonderful  they  are  for  sordidness,  for  avarice.  Wonder- 
ful they  are  for  self-destruction.  But  more  wonderful  are  men  for 
the  vanquishing  power  of  faith,  for  the  all-conquering  power  of  hope 
for  the  power  of  flight  by  thought,  for  aspiration,  for  yearning,  for 
love,  and  for  joys  that  make  heaven  shine  as  the  firmament  at  night 
with  all  the  stars  in  it.  Wondei-ful  are  men ;  and  yet,  how  few 
know  how  to  take  care  of  themselves,  so  that  they  are  healthy  in 
body — in  heart,  in  stomach,  in  liver,  in  brain,  in  every  limb,  and  in 
each  faculty !  How  few  are  in  all  parts  of  their  constitution  in  a 
state  of  health,  sublime  and  sanctified  by  the  divine  spirit  of  God  [ 
How  few  know  what  is  the  reward  of  obedience  to,  and  the  penalty 
of  violating,  the  laws  of  their  being !  How  few  walk  with  God, 
and  live  in  that  perfect  peace  which  passes  all  understanding,  be- 
cause they  live  in  conformity  to  the  divine  decrees  which  govern 
:  human  creatures  ! 

Listen  to  Paul's  prayer ; 

"  The  very  God  of  peace  sanctify  you  wholly ;  and  I  pray  God  your  whole 
spirit  and  soul  and  body  be  preserved  blameless  unto  the  coming  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ." 

Is  there  any  other  gift  that  you  could  present  to  Christ  at  his 
coming  that  would  be  so  worthy  of  his  taking,  and  that  would  fill 
him  with  such  joy,  and  you  with  such  blessedness,  as  yourself,  sanc- 
tified in  body  and  spirit  and  soul,  and  trained  to  all  excellences,  and 
aspiring  evermore,  so  that  at  last,  as  a  son  of  God,  you  should  stand 
iunrebuked  in  the  presence  of  the  Eternal  Father  ? 

Men  and  brethren,  ponder  these  things.  See  if  your  houses  may 
not  be  made  more  nearly  like  the  temple  of  God.  See  if  your  habits 
at  home,  elsewhere  than  in  the  closet,  do  not  need  improvement. 
See  if  your  table  does  not  call  for  reformation.  See  if  your  whole 
life  is  not  in  spots  blameworthy.  If  you  would  live  a  Christian  life, 
live  holily,  obediently,  remembering  that  God  is  revealed  by  every- 
thing in  you  and  about  you  as  plainly  as  he  was  revealed  on  Mount 
Sinai.  And  remember  that  you  are  to  be  joyful  by  obeying  the 
'whole  will  of  God. 

On  a  long  and  toilsome  journey,  is  there  anything  that  breaks 
the  tedium  more  than  to  stop  at  the  house  of  an  old  friend,  and  re- 
new your  youth  again,  by  talking  over  old  experiences?  How  bet- 
ter than  food  is  the  heart  of  man  to  man !  We  are  now  on  the 
toilsome  journey  of  life ;  and  it  pleases  our  dearest  Friend  and  Sa- 


TO  SPIRITUAL  STATES.  171 

viour  to  appear  In  the  breaking  of  bread  to  tbose  who  are  on  the 
way.  We  sit  down  together.  We  sup.  We  talk  of  our  old  hopes, 
of  our  strifes  and  struggles,  and  of  all  the  way  that  is  before  us. 
And  it  is  full  of  sweet  refreshment.  The  blessing  of  God  rests  upon 
our  communion  together  around  the  broken  bread  and  the  out- 
poured cup.  There  is  Christ  in  them  if  there  is  Christ  in  us — if  we 
have  the  divine  art  of  realizing  his  presence. 

So,  pilgrims  ;  ye  that  are  weary ;  ye  to  whom  the  way  has  been 
too  great,  I  invite  you  to  come  and  rest.  Come  and  sit  down  with 
us  around  the  table  of  your  Lord  and  Master.  That  you  are  sinful, 
is  the  reason  why  you  should  come.  That  you  have  failed  in  the 
past,  is  the  reason  why  you  should  have  strength  for  the  future. 
That  you  do  not  live  right,  is  the  reason  why  you  should  prepare 
for  a  new  departure.  I  do  not  invite  members  of  the  church  to 
come.  A  man  may  be  out  of  the  church  and  be  eminently  fit.  You 
are  to  stand  on  your  conscious  need.  K  you  are  weak,  if  you  are 
sinful,  if  you  are  perpetually  falling;  but  if  you  have  the  testimony 
of  your  conscience  that  you  do  not  desire  to  live  a  life  of  sin,  that 
you  would  rather  live  a  life  of  holiness,  and  are  willing  to  accept  it 
at  the  hands  of  your  crucified  Redeemer,  by  that  inward  experience 
I  invite  you  to  stop  at  your  Master's  house,  at  this  most  blessed  inn 
on  the  way  of  life.  Stop,  wayfarers,  when  the  Master  sits  to  enter- 
tain you.  Remain  and  commune  with  us  for  one  half-hour.  Broth- 
ers and  sisters  in  the  Lord,  as  many  of  you  as  can  tai-ry  with  us  and 
partake  of  the  symbols  of  the  body  and  blood  of  our  Saviour,  are 
affectionately  invited  to  do  so. 


172  bi:la  tions  of  fhysical  ca  uses 


PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

We  rejoice  in  the  richness  and  the  abundance  of  thy  grace,  O  Lord  our 
God,  that  art  our  Father.  "We  rejoice  that  thy  thoughts  are  not  mean,  nor 
poor.  Giving  doth  not  impoverish  thee,  nor  withholding  make  thee  rich.  It 
is  thy  life  tft  give  Ufe,  and  it  is  thy  joy  to  impart  joy.  Thou  art  God  over  all, 
blessed  forever,  because  forever  thou  art  blessing.  And  all  thy  creatures, 
widely  outlying,  are  before  thee  evermore.  And  though  there  is  sadness, 
and  sorrow,  and  pain,  and  darkness,  and  death,  they  are  not  to  thee  as  they 
are  to  us.  Far  across  the  transient,  and  far  into  the  sure  and  glo  wing  future, 
thou  art  evermore  looking ;  and  thou  dost  behold  the  light  that  is  shining  for 
all  others ;  and  the  joy  that  is  waiting  for  all  sorrow,  and  the  victory  that  lies 
beyond  all  defeat,  and  that  consummation  which  shall  build  up  all  the  wrecks 
and  losses  of  this  mortal  sphere,  we  cannot  rise  up  into  sympathy  with. 
Thou  siltest  on  the  cii'cle  of  the  earth,  and  art  above  the  storm.  We  are 
beneath  it,  and  it  beats  down  mainly  upon  us.  And  how  can  we  see  thee, 
hidden  as  thou  art,  often,  by  the  clouds  that  surround  thy  throne?  Yet,  we 
rise.  As  birds  through  the  wind  and  through  the  storm  seek  their  shelter, 
and  find  it,  though  di^enched,  so  we  seek  thee,  and  in  our  trouble  and  disquiet 
cry  out.  We  are  whirled  much,  and  often  we  fare  hardly ;  but  when  we  find 
thee  we  have  peace — that  peace  which  passeth  all  understanding. 

Thou  art  better  than  men  can  be,  and  purer,  and  wiser,  and  infinitely 
more  gentle,  more  loviug,  and  more  forgiving.  Thou  hast  received  into  the 
bosom  of  thy  confidence  those  whom  men  reject.  Thou  dost  understand 
perfectly  those  who  cannot  understand  themselves,  and  are  not  understood. 
Thou  dost  make  up  out  of  the  fullness  of  thine  own  abundance  all  the  imper- 
fections and  all  the  inequalities  of  this  life  to  us.  And  so  thou  art  all  in  all 
to  men— everything  that  they  need — if  they  will  but  participate  in  thy 
bounty. 

O,  behold  how  poor  we  are !  Even  as  at  night  children  who  cannot  find 
their  father's  house  lie  down  and  perish  in  the  cold  though  it  be  scarcely 
beyond  their  sight,  so  many  are  perishing  for  lack  of  heavenly  shelter,  spirit- 
ual food,  and  divine  power.  Thou  art  clothing  the  earth  with  beauty ;  and 
yet  how  few  behold !  Having  eyes,  they  see  not.  Thou  art  filling  the  air  and 
time  with  sounds  of  sweetness,  and  all  of  human  life  gushes  forth  with  melo- 
dies to  those  who  have  an  ear  to  hear ;  and  yet  how  few  hear  I  The  hoarse 
sounds  of  life-  tbese  we  hear. 

O  Lord  our  God,  grant  that  we  may  be  so  tempered  by  thy  Spirit  that  we 
shall  discern  the  things  that  are  true  though  invisible.  May  we  pierce  within 
the  shell.  May  we  know  the  great  substantial  realm  of  those  everlasting 
verities  that  have  no  body,  but  that  move  with  infinite  power  and  love  for- 
ever because  they  are  of  God.  May  we  dwell  in  this  realm  forever,  seeing 
Him  who  is  invisible,  and  feeling  the  power  and  the  pulsations  of  those 
truths  which  are  the  food  of  the  soul.  And  grant  from  day  to  day  that  we 
may  not  wander  as  strangers,  and  pilgrims,  and  outcasts,  and  oriDhans :  may 
we  feel  that  we  have  a  Father  in  heaven,  and  that  his  providence  is  for  us. 
May  we,  in  the  midst  of  our  conscious  imperfections,  and  mistakes,  and  fre- 
quent stumblings,  and  great  sins,  and  manifold  guilt,  have  faith  still  to  claim 
the  promise  of  God,  which  is  not  made  for  the  pure  in  heart  alone,  but  for 
all  that  need. 

May  there  this  morning  be  those  in  thy  presence  who  shall  be  bold  to  take 
hold  of  God  because  they  so  utterly  need  him.  If  there  are  those  who  are 
conscious  of  their  failings,  who  see  the  rottenness  of  their  dispositions,  who 
have  rolled  and  stumbled  in  riotous  living,  grant  that  they  may  not  cast 
themselves  utterly  away.    May  they,  too,  feel  that  there  is  a  portion  for 


TO  SPIBITUAL  STATES.  173 

them,  and  that  the  heart  of  God  is  ever  open,  and  forever  calls  them  to  return 
from  their  evil,  and  to  learn  good.  And  may  they  believe  that  God's  grace 
wiU  help  them,  and  will  never  leave  nor  forsake  them.  And  though  they  be 
often  cast  down,  may  they  not  be  destroyed,  and  floally  may  they  be  saved- 

Grant  that  every  one  in  thy  presence  this  morning  who  has  cares,  and 
sorrows,  and  bereavements,  and  distress  of  mind,  and  anxiety,  may  be  able 
to  draw  near  thee,  and  to  lay  their  burdens  and  their  troubles  at  thy  feet. 
Speak  kindly  to  those  whose  hearts  are  parched  within  them. 

And  we  beseech  of  thee,  O  Lord  our  God,  that  thou  wilt  grant  a  sense  of 
forgiveness  to  all  those  who  have  long  lived  the  Christian  life,  and  to  those 
who,  with  doubtful  warfare,  are  still  pursuing  it.  Grant  that  all  of  them, 
this  morning,  may  find  nearness  of  access  to  thee,  and  have  that  peace  which 
thou  dost  breathe  upon  thy  disciples. 

We  rejoice,  O  Lord,  that  thou  dost  succor  all ;  and  we  pray  that  all,  this 
morning,  may  find  a  portion  on  their  Father's  table.  And  if  we  look  for- 
ward and  see  our  days  shortening,  and  the  number  of  them  diminishing,  may 
it  bring  no  sorrow.  May  we  rejoice  to  depart  and  be  with  Christ,  which  is 
better  than  life.  And  may  there  be  a  Christ  for  us — an  anointed  One — an 
Litercessor — a  Forerunner — a  counseling  Friend— a  very  present  Help  in 
time  of  need.  But  let  not  the  heaven  be  emptied,  nor  the  earth  be  made 
desolate.  May  the  light  shine  in  the  brightness  of  thy  Father's  love,  that 
looks  forth  over  all  the  world  to  succor  it.  By  thy  sorrow,  O  Lord  Jesus,  by 
thy  suffering,  by  thy  perfect  obedience,  by  thy  life,  by  thy  death,  and  by 
thy  Ufa  again,  we  plead  for  mercy  upon  ourselves,  upon  our  children,  upon 
all  who  are  around  about  us,  upon  the  whole  Israel  of  God,  and  upon  the 
whole  human  family. 

Let  the  day  of  peace  come.  Let  the  day  of  war  go  past.  Let  the  day  of 
strifes  and  envyings  set,  ne^er  to  rise  again.  Let  that  day  come  in  which 
the  sun  shall  stand  a  thousand  years,  shining  brightly. 

O  Lord  Jesus,  make  haste ;  for  the  whole  earth  doth  wait  for  thee,  groan- 
ing and  travailing  in  pain  imtil  now.  For  thy  promises  are  Yea  and  Amen. 
Thou  hast  set  them  forth.  We  believe  that  thou  wilt  yet  come,  and  that 
this  world  shall  become  a  world  of  righteousness,  as  it  hath  been  desolated 
hitherto  by  transgression. 

And  now,  we  pray,  that  thou  wilt  prepare  us  for  all  the  services  of  the 
sanctuary,  and  for  all  the  enjoyments  of  this  day.  May  it  be  a  day  of  fruit- 
ful joy  and  gladness  to  us.  May  the  little  children  rejoice  in  the  Sunday  as 
it  comes  around.  May  it  be  'to  them  the  brightest  day  of  all  the  week. 
May  parents  rejoice.  May  all  the  members  of  the  family  feel  that  it  is  the 
Lord's  day.  And  grant  that  all  the  other  days  of  the  week  may  point 
toward  this.  May  there  be  around  about  this  day  such  sweet  associations; 
may  all  the  truths  of  life  and  manhood  and  eternal  life  be  so  radiant  on 
this  day.  that  from  year  to  year  we  shall  feel  that  our  Sundays  are  our  cas- 
tles of  rest,  our  pavilions  into  which  we  run  when  the  storm  is  out  until  it 
be  overpassed.  And  at  last,  when  we  shall  have  finished  our  earthly 
career,  bring  us  to  that  undiminished,  undivided  rest,  the  Sabbath  of 
heaven.  And  to  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Spirit,  shall  be  praises  ever- 
more.   Amen. 


X. 

Redemption  of  the  Ballot. 


BEDEMPTIOI  OF  THE  BALLOT. 


The  history  which  I  have  read  to  you  furnishes  a  proper  intro- 
duction to  the  theme  upon  which  I  shall  discourse  to-night. 

You  will  take  notice  that  after  great  corruption  had  pervaded 
the  government  of  the  nation  under  Ahab,  and  things  had  gone 
from  bad  to  worse,  until  they  seemed  to  have  reached  a  point  be- 
yond which  they  could  not  grow  worse,  there  happened  one  of  those 
paroxysms,  one  of  those  revivals  of  personal  feeling,  and  of  virtue, 
which  bid  fair,  for  the  moment,  to  carry  away  this  whole  tangled 
mesh  of  abomination.  The  factors  and  managers  of  the  royal  wick- 
edness were  seized,  and  were  destroyed.  A  powerful  impression 
was  made  on  the  imagination,  on  the  religious  feeling,  and  on  the 
patriotism  of  the  people  ;  and  for  the  houi*,  not  the  royal  head  of 
the  nation,  but  that  long,  gaunt  creature  of  the  wilderness,  that 
Bedouin  Arab,  as  it  were,  Elijah,  he  that  was  always  coming  as  a 
dream  comes,  and  going  as  a  dream  vanishes,  towered  up  the  one 
conspicuous  figure.  And  yet,  in  the  very  hour  of  his  preponderant 
influence,  Jezebel  sent  him  word  that  he  too  should  fall ;  and,  leav- 
ing the  reformation  inchoate,  he  fled  from  the  northern  part  of  the 
land,  speedily,  across  the  Judean  hills,  and  to  the  extreme  south,  and 
away  into  the  wilderness,  and  hid  himself  under  a  juniper  bush,  and 
prayed  that  God  would  let  him  die  there.  And  this  was  the  end  of 
that  reformation. 

It  is  a  very  good  text  from  which  to  preach  and  warn  people  of 
the  danger  of  sudden  and  spasmodic  reformations,  and  to  endeavor 
to  teach  them  how  great  changes  fi*om  bad  to  good  should  rest  on 
sure  foundations,  carrying  intelligence  of  purpose,  organization, 
persistence,  and  the  will  of  the  community,  by  virtue,  not  of  a 
spasm  of  enthusiasm,  but  of  moral  judgment.  Then  the  prophets 
of  reformation  will  not  run  from  the  face  of  any  corrupt  royal 
courtesan  whatsoever. 

I  mean  to  speak,  to-night,  on  The  Redemption  of  the  Ballot. 
The  principle  of  government  is  of  God  ;  but  no  particular  govern- 
ment is  divine.     Men  are  made  so  that  they  cannot  answer  the  ends 

Sunday  Evening,  Nov.  13, 1871.  Lesson  :  1  Kinos,  Chap.  XVIII.,  19-45  verses 
Inclusive ;  also  Chap.  XIX.,  1-4  verses  inclusive.  Hymns  (Plymouth  Collection) :  Noa, 
2,1244,1023. 


1 76  BEDEMFTION  OF  TEB  BALLOT. 

of  their  creation,  nor  realize  all  that  they  are  organized  for,  except 
when  they  are  under  regulated  government. 

Ths  natural  order  of  government  is,  for  savage  and  undeveloped 
men,  absolute  monarchy.  When  they  become  partially  intelligent, 
and  a  favored  portion  of  them  are  able  to  think  for  themselves,  then 
an  aristocracy.  When  the  whole  community  are  so  far  leavened  as 
to  have  an  intelligent  conception,  both  of  their  wants  and  of  the 
means  of  their  supply,  then  a  republican  government,  which  is  an 
inflection  of  democracy.  In  the  last  mode,  or  republicanism,  the 
question  was  first  and  chiefly,  how  to  give  the  whole  people  a  chanfte 
to  make  known  their  will  in  government.  There  was  needed,  first,  a 
method  which  was  adapted  to  the  use  of  great  numbers  spread  over 
a  wide  extent  of  territory.  For  a  literal  democracy,  except  in  a 
small  circuit,  is  impossible.  A  literal  democracy  is  where  absolutely 
the  whole  people  vote.  This  can  be  done  in  a  township.  It  cannot 
well  be  done  in  a  county.  It  cannot  be  done  in  a  State  like  New 
York.  The  whole  people  in  such  a  State  cannot  be  gathered  to- 
gether at  one  and  the  same  time,  and  in  the  presence  of  each  othc, 
and  vote,  or  declare  what  their  will  is,  in  respect  to  men,  to  policieti, 
or  to  laws.  There  must  be  some  method,  therefore,  by  which  men 
can  express  their  will  while  they  are  distributed  through  a  wide 
space.  And  when  they  exist  in  such  vast  numbers  that  a  congrega- 
tion of  them,  or  a  thousand  congregations  of  them,  would  not  be 
adequate,  it  is  necessary  that  this  expression,  by  whatever  methoi, 
of  the  people's  will,  should  have  in  it  not  simply  a  declaratory  force, 
but  a  power  to  execute  itself.  Merely  to  say  that  a  people  will  so 
and  so,  is  a  perilous  thing. 

Now,  the  ballot  is  that  invention  by  which  the  people  determina 
laws,  and  policies,  and  magistracies.  In  the  political  machinery 
which  has  gradually  grown  up,  it  has  been  arranged  that  people 
shall  express  their  wishes  by  the  ballot,  and  that  this  expression, 
going  through  certain  courses,  shall  organize  itself  into  administra- 
tion, with  all  the  power  of  sovereignty,  and  all  the  dignity  of  the 
state. 

The  ballot,  therefore,  is  the  unit  of  our  government.  It  is  the 
first  point.  It  is  the  initial  force.  And  it  is  at  that  point  that  the 
will  of  the  people  begins  to  take  eflfect.  If  it  be  choked,  if  it  be 
perverted,  it  is  as  if  a  steam-pipe  that  supplies  the  engine  should  be 
clogged.     The  machine  may  be  good,  but  its  motive-force  is  gone. 

There  is  no  other  part  of  government  which  cannot  better  sufi^er 
derangement  than  the  ballot.  For  that  is  the  point  where  force  con- 
centrates ;  where  it  takes  on  the  executive  form  ;  where  scattered 
thoughts,  purposes,  decisions,  begin  to  globe  themselves  into  decrees 


EEDilMPTION  OF  THE  BALLOT.  Ill 

that  carry  with  them  success.     This  is  the  very  heart  of  the  system 
under  which  we  live.     It  is  the  means  of  coUectins:  and  resisterino- 

o  o  any 

and  enforcing  the  will  of  the  whole  people. 

The  Judiciary  may  be  corrupted,  and  yet  other  parts  of  the 
government  go  on  well.  The  Legislature  may  for  a  time  be  cor- 
rupted, and  yet  other  portions  of  the  Government  go  on  well.  But 
if  you  strike  the  ballot  with  disease,  it  is  heart-disease.  There  is  no 
other  place  so  vital,  no  other  place  so  full  of  life  ;  and  there  is 
no  other  place  so  full  of  death  if  it  be  tampered  with — if  it  be 
poisoned. 

What  are  the  dangers,  then,  of  corruption  in  this  very  germ  of 
Government  ? 

1.  There  is  the  danger  of  weak  or  ignorant  voting.  This  is  not 
always  a  danger  so  great  as  it  is  sometimes.  Its  extent  depends 
upon  circumstances.  In  great  emergencies,  in  revolutions,  in  wars, 
in  proposed  changes  of  constitution,  ignorant  voting  may  be  fatal 
voting  ;  but  for  all  transient  and  ordinary  purposes  ignorant  voting? 
though  it  is  a  mischief,  and  a  great  mischief,  is  not  an  immedicable 
one  ;  nor  is  it  so  intolerable  as  many  others.  Men  talk  a  great  deal 
about  the  votes  of  the  great  mass  of  ignorant  men.  I  tell  you,  our 
dangers  do  not  come  from  that  side.  It  is  not  the  ignorant  men  that 
we  are  endangered  by^  but  the  lazy  and  the  corrupt  men— the  men 
who  neglect  to  use,  or  else  abuse,  the  ballot.  It  is  the  top  of  society 
that  threatens  to  kill  us,  and  not  the  bottom.  And  yet  there  is 
danger  from  the  great  ignorant  mass.  It  is,  however,  over-valued 
in  our  affairs. 

2.  Wicked  voting,  or  voting  where  bad  men  wickedly  combine  to 
secure  laws  and  a  magistracy  favorable  to  their  corrupt  designs,  is  a 
danger.  Every  man  has  a  right  by  the  combination  of  votes  to 
seek  the  things  which  he  wants ;  and  every  class  will  seek  that  which 
is  natural  to  the  plane  to  which  they  belong.  If  they  live  for  the 
animal  life,  they  will  seek,  by  votes,  and  through  the  Government, 
to  secure  that  which  shall  gratify  the  animal  life.  If  they  live  for 
the  passional  life,  they  will  seek,  by  votes,  and  through  the  Govern- 
ment, to  secure  that  which  shall  gratify  the  passional  life.  And  so 
far  as  political  right  is  concerned,  they  have  as  much  right  to  seek 
those  things  as  you  have  to  seek  higher  and  better  things.  Never- 
theless, where  men  ai-e  living  for  the  flesh  ;  where  men  desire  to 
bring  all  the  forces  of  society  to  bear  to  secui-e  for  themselves  the 
means  of  corrupt  living,  it  is  a  great  danger  to  the  ballot  ;  it  is  a 
great  corruption  of  society  ;  it  is  a  terror  ;  and  it  ought  to  be  more 
feared  than  it  is. 

3.  Passionate  and  fiery  voting  is  a  great  peril.     To  meet  this 


]  78  BEDEMPTION  OF  TEE  BALLOT. 

peril  is  the  object  of  what  are  called  republican,  in  dlsLinction  from 
direct  democratic  governments.  Men  who  are  ordinarily  good,  may, 
under  the  influence  of  excitements  and  passions,  vote  in  such  a  way 
as  to  destroy  in  an  hour  that  which  ages  have  been  occupied  in 
creating.  A  system  of  double-voting  is,  therefore,  introduced.  It 
is  a  mechanical  contrivance  to  make  men  vote  slowly  ;  as,  for 
instance,  where  men  vote  for  a  representative,  and  then  the  repre- 
sentative votes  for  them,  in  the  enaction  of  laws,  and  the  administra- 
tion of  policies.  This  system  of  double-voting  is  simply  designed 
to  compel  men  to  take  time,  and  vote  with  their  better  self,  and  not 
with  their  lower  and  passionate  and  fiery  self. 

4.  We  are  in  danger  of  insubordinate  voting,  or  voting  where 
the  result  will  be  accepted  if  it  is  liked,  and  overthrown  and  re- 
jected if  it  is  disliked.  The  true  doctrine  of  our  government  is  that 
in  the  conduct  of  affairs,  not  in  moral  questions,  but  in  questions  of 
policy,  the  majority  must  rule,  and  the  minority  must  implicitly  sub- 
mit. No  man  has  a  right  to  go  to  the  polls  who  does  not  go  with 
the  determination  to  have  his  own  way  if  he  can,  and  to  let  other 
people  have  theirs  if  he  cannot,  and  to  accept  the  situation  when  it 
has  been  fairly  decided  by  the  ballot. 

The  only  way  to  change  a  wrong  course  or  cause,  is,  to  work 
change  in  the  convictions  of  the  citizen.  Change  the  vote  ;  but  do 
not  undertake  to  resist  the  result  of  the  vote.  Change  the  result,  by 
changing  the  vote  again.  Otherwise  voting  is  a  mockery.  The  re- 
publics of  South  America  are  in  one  perpetual  fume  of  revolution 
simply  because,  though  they  vote,  voting  settles  nothing  ;  and  ^ve 
have  been  stable  as  a  government,  and  have  continued  till  this  day, 
with  permanence  and  growing  civilization,  because  there  has  been 
nothing  more  sacred  than  the  result  of  fair  balloting. 

5.  We  are  in  danger  by  venal  voting.  There  would  seem,  at  the 
first  thought,  to  be  little  that  is  very  threatening  in  the  selling  of 
the  vote  ;  but  experience  shows,  and  philosophic  analysis  proves, 
that  there  is  nothing  more  corrupting  and  dangerous  to  the  com- 
munity than  that  in  public  aftairs,  or  in  his  place  as  a  citizen,  a  man 
should  sell  his  vote,  either  for  interest  or  money. 

There  are  very  few  of  you,  I  suppose,  who  would  take  money  for 
your  vote  at  the  polls  ;  but  men  who  were  as  good  by  nature  as 
you  are,  have  been  sent  to  the' Legislature  by  hundreds  and  by  hun- 
dreds, who  have  not  hesitated  to  sell  their  votes  there.  We  call  that 
man  a  scoundrel  who  for  five  dollars  will  vote  this  way,  or  by  ten 
dollars  will  be  turned  that  way.  There  is  nothing  in  nomenclature, 
it  would  seem,  too  severe,  with  which  to  denounce  such  a  man.  And 
yet,  the  only  difierence  between  him  and  the  man  in  Albany  who 


REDEMPTION  OF  THE  BALLOT.  179 

sells  his  vote,  is  the  difference  of  the  prices  •winch  they  command  in 
the  market.  The  man  who  will  sell  his  vote  for  twenty  thousand 
dollars  is  meaner  than  the  man  who  will  sell  his  vote  for  five  dollars; 
because  in  the  former  case  there  is  more  deliberation,  and  less  necer- 
sity — less  pressure  of  the  lower  wants. 

Voting  has  become  deplorably  corrupted  in  the  matter  of 
venality.  To  raise  money  to  buy  votes  has  become  as  common  as 
to  raise  money  to  publish  notices  and  send  out  papers  and  tracts. 
Money  must  always  be  used  in  the  conduct  of  a  great  political  cam- 
paign, because  a  contest  must  be  carried  on  by  instruments,  and 
these  instruments  must  be  supported  ;  but  the  line  is  to  be  drawn 
where  these  instruments  cease  to  be  legitimate  means  of  giving  in- 
formation to  the  people — where*they  become  a  direct  apj)lication  of 
money  to  men's  interests.  Where  the  money  is  purchase-money  for 
votes,  it  becomes  one  of  the  most  corrupting  of  all  the  influences 
which  can  be  brought  to  bear  uj^on  the  baMot. 

Thousands  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men  consider  their 
voting  to  be  simply  a  prerogative,  which  they  may  sell  for  Avhat  it 
will  bring  them  from  election  to  election  ;  and  they  are  bought  and 
sold,  bought  and  sold,  bought  and  sold,  till  they  are  thoroughly 
struck  through  with  venality. 

And  this  does  not  stop  with  the  individual  factors.  It  has  gone 
on  from  step  to  step,  until  v/e  have  arrived  at  a  time  when,  if  we  do 
not  change,  our  institutions  will  drop  down,  and  go  to  dust  from 
sheer  corruption,  or  inability  of  these  institutions  to  maintain  them- 
selves. 

6.  The  ballot  is  in  danger  from  corruption  in  the  form  of  tam- 
pering. I  allude  to  that  whole  interference  by  fraud  between  the 
vote  and  the  declaration  of  it,  with  which  you  are  far  more  famil- 
iar than  I  am,  but  which,  I  believe,  has  been  sufficiently  ex- 
posed, to  render  every  intelligent  and  paper-reading  citizen  aware 
of  it.  The  keeping,  by  threats  and  violence,  of  men  away 
from  the  polls  ;  the  stuffing  of  ballot-boxes  ;  the  changing  of 
votes  when  they  have  been  deposited ;  and,  above  all,  the  infernal  art 
of  counting — these  are  substantially  usurpations  which  amount  to 
treason.  The  man  who  takes  the  crown  and  the  scepter,  and  the 
function  of  the  sovereign,  in  England,  does  not  commit  treason  one 
whit  more  than  the  man  who  by  fraud  and  violence  lays  his  hands 
upon  the  ballot-box,  and  substitutes  his  will  fraudulently  for  the 
decree  and  purpose  of  the  people.  What  counterfeiting  is  in  com- 
merce, what  forgery  is  in  public  affairs,  what  treason  is  in  govern, 
ment,  that,  exactly,  and  in  a  more  infamous  fa  :m,  is  every  method  by 
which  violence  is  done  to  the  ballot-box. 


180  BBDEMFTION  OF  THE  BALLOT. 

This,  which  I  have  described,  is  notorious.  It  has  taken  place 
and  is  taking  place,  in  ward  after  ward,  precinct  after  precinct,  year 
after  year,  and  period  after  period.  And  the  bribery  and  corruption 
are  not  confined  to  one  side.  Fire  is  being  fought  by  fire.  Venality 
lis  being  fought  by  venality.  Cheating  is  fought  by  counter-cheat- 
ing. Inspectors  are  bought,  and  then  bought  over  again.  Judges 
are  bribed  to  dishonesty,  and  then  bribed  back  to  honesty. 

All  these  forms  of  violence  to  the  ballot  are  becoming  famil- 
iar in  our  great  cities.  And  though  I  do  not  think  they  have  been 
alike  practiced  by  both  parties,  I  do  believe  that  they  have  been 
practiced  to  a  certain  extent  by  all  parties  that  have  dominated. 
And  so  long  as  that  is  the  case,  all  thought  of  reformation  in  other 
departments  is  fatuitous. 

7.  But  the  greatest  of  all  the  dangers  to  the  ballot  is  indifierence 
and  neglect  on  the  part  of  the  educated  community.  To  the  ballot 
all  forms  of  passion  are  dangerous,  all  ignorance  is  dangerous,  all 
haste  is  dangerous,  all  venality  is  dangerous,  all  violence  is  danger- 
ous ;  but,  after  all,  nothing  is  half  so  dangerous  to  the  ballot,  in  my 
judgment,  as  indifference.  It  is  the  guiltiest,  the  wickedest,  the 
most  coiTupting,  of  all  the  evils  with  which  the  ballot  has  to  con- 
tend. 

This  danger  will  be  better  understood  if  we  inquire  into  the 
subject  further,  and  take  a  larger  view  of  it.  I  have  said  that  the 
ballot  is  the  very  key  to  government.  It  is  the  key,  certainly,  to 
the  possession  of  government.  Since  the  world  began,  I  suppose, 
men  have  sought,  and  till  the  world  shall  end,  I  suppose,  men  will 
seek,  to  get  possession  of  the  Government  for  one  purpose  and  an- 
other of  their  own  interest.  In  every  generation  the  struggle  which 
goes  on  in  society  is  a  struggle  to  decide  who  shall  possess  the  Gov- 
ernment; who  shall  have  its  immunities;  who  shall  enjoy  its  hon- 
ors ;  who  shall  gratify  his  ambition  by  means  of  it.  And  in  America 
the  Government  affords  such  facilities  for  self-aggrandizement  of  a 
private  or  corporate  nature,  that  it  becomes  an  object  of  desire  in 
the  eyes  of  men.  And  the  desire  increases  as  the  power  wielded 
increases.  This  side  of  automatic  Russia,  there  is  no  political  power 
comparable  to  that  which  is  wielded  in  our  Government,  which  has 
the  control  and  management  of  such  laws  and  policies,  touching 
commerce  on  every  side.  He  that  can  manage  the  Government  may 
be  said  to  have  the  power,  well-nigh,  to  command  nature  itself 
There  has  always  been  a  struggle  between  the  upper  and  the  lower 
nature  in  men  for  the  possession  of  this  Government,  and  it  will  al- 
iways  continue.  Men  of  basilar  instincts  will  seek  to  control  the 
Government,  while  men  of  moral  instincts  will  seek  to  wrest  it  from 


BEBEMPTION  OF  TEE  BALLOT.  181 

them.  And  this  conflict  will  go  on.  It  never  will  be  settled.  Bad 
men — men  that  are  consciously  or  unconsciously  bad — in  the  com- 
munity, will  always  be  seeking  to  hold  and  run  the  engine  ;  and 
the  good  men,  upright  citizens,  will  always  be  stirred  up,  more  or 
less  reluctantly,  to  wrest  the  power  of  the  Government  from  the 
hands  of  those  Avho  run  it  for  carnal  purposes. 

Now,  consider  how  powerful  parties  are  in  such  a  nation  as  this, 
where  they  govern  half  a  continent,  or  a  whole  continent,  and  em- 
brace half  the  population ;  where  they  have  conglomerated  the  in- 
terests of  all  classes  of  men.  He  knows  very  little  of  what  parties 
are  who  does  not  know  that  they  are  webbed  full  of  the  interests  of 
men.  He  knows  very  little  of  what  parties  are  who  supposes  that 
they  are  mere  representatives  of  political  opinions.  They  involve 
questions  of  finance  ;  questions  of  personal  freedom ;  questions  re- 
lating to  the  promotion  of  the  interests  of  the  commur.ity  in  a  variety 
of  ways  ;  questions  that  are  essentially  commercial,  and  touch  men 
in  their  very  pockets  and  business.  He  who  has  possession  of  the 
Government  finds  in  his  hands  a  powerful  instrument  for  the  further- 
ing of  his  own  interest  on  every  side ;  while  if  it  is  in  the  hands  of 
an  antagonist,  he  finds  his  interest  restrained  on  every  side.  Great 
parties  represent  not  merely  divisions  of  opinion,  but  all  industrial 
interests ;  commercial  interests ;  the  vast  proj)erty-interests  of  the 
country. 

Add,  now,  to  these,  the  great  moneyed  corporations,  like  the 
New  York  Central  Railroad,  the  Erie  Railroad,  or  the  Pennsylvania 
Central  Railroad,  which  at  any  moment  can  take  millions  of 
dollars  and  throw  them  into  the  scale,  to  warp  legislation,  to  bribe 
the  popular  vote,  and  to  touch  the  ballot  in  its  most  vital  part. 
And  consider  how  parties  themselves  stand  open  to  these  gigantic 
influences.  As  if  it  were  not  enough  that  there  should  be  bad  oi*- 
ganizations  on  so  broad  a  scale,  see  how  parties  themselves  are  be- 
coming the  ark  into  which  every  living  creature  is  creeping. 

And,  when  we  consider  what  the  future  is  to  be;  that  this  con- 
tinent is  not  half  developed  ;  that  its  policy  in  a  thousand  directions 
is  opening  up  schemes  which  are  commensurate  with  the  globe 
itself,  and  which  include  questions  of  humanity,  and  education,  and 
even  religion,  touching  morals  in  its  very  vitals  ;  when  we  consider 
what  pecuniary  and  partisan  interests  are  brought  to  bear  to  control 
the  ballot,  have  we  nothing  to  fear  ?  Is  there  no  danger  in  these 
directions  ? 

I  need  rot  say  what  is  understood  by  all — how  largely  these 
moneyed  corporations  have  perverted  justice.  All  of  us  who  are  of 
ray  age  have  lived  through  one  period,  to  see  the  consciences  of  men 


182  BBDBMFTION  OF  THE  BALLOT 

deadened  by,  and  all  their  baser  passions  invested  in,  slavery. 
The  whole  nation  was  narcotized,  and  was  led  through  a  guilty 
dance  of  many  years'  duration.  And  when  at  last  slavery  was  de- 
stroyed, men  felt,  "  Now,  the  nation,  like  an  overloaded  ship,  that 
has  thrown  its  burden  into  the  sea,  will  rise  buoyant."  But,  ah ! 
we  did  not  throw  human  nature  overboard  ;  nor  did  we  throw  the 
passions  overboard.  This  great  evil  was  one  place  where  they 
resorted  ;  but  now  that  we  have  routed  them  from  that,  they  have 
taken  refuge  in  others.  And  we  have  as  much  to  fear  now  from  great 
corporated  moneyed  institutions  which  spread  themselves  from  ocean 
to  ocean,  and  which  are  every  year  coming  more  and  more 
into  the  command  of  treasure  literally  uncountable,  as  we  had  to 
fear  from  slavery.  The  terrific,  gigantic,  pressure  which  is  brought 
to  bear  upon  popular  affairs  from  these  corporations,  ought  to  give 
every  thoughtful  man  pause.  I  tell  you,  we  are,  to-day,  more  in 
danger  from  organized  money,  than  ever  we  were  in  our  lives  from 
that  which  we  regarded  as  the  greatest  of  evils.  And  the  battle 
of  the  future  is  going  to  be  a  battle  of  gold  and  silver.  , 

What  can  stand  such  a  siege ;  such  a  bombardment ;  such  sap- 
ping and  mining  ;  such  assault  without,  and  such  treachery  within  ? 
Can  the  ballot  survive  when  there  are  so  many  interests  which  de- 
pend upon  perverting  it  ?  When  there  is  such  force  of  commercial 
selfishness  brought  to  bear  against  it,  is  there  any  chance  that  it  can 
survive  and  have  a  power  that  shall  control  these  other  powers  ?  It 
is  time  for  us  to  think  about  these  things. 

Here,  then,  is  the  reason  why  I  declare  that  of  all  the  dangers 
which  threaten  the  ballot  there  is  none  which  is  comparable  to  indif- 
ference ;  for  this  indifference  is  chiefly  practiced  by  the  rich,  the 
refined,  and  the  religious  classes.  To  the  poor  it  is  a  power — espec- 
ially to  those  who  have  from  foreign  lands  resorted  hither.  Never 
before  having  been  allowed  to  have  a  voice  in  popular  affairs,  they 
feel  that  the  ballot  is  an  honor  to  them.  But  those  who  are  born 
and  bred  here,  and  who  are  prosperous  and  cultivated,  and  who  are 
livino-  at  ease,  or  are  engaged  in  great  industries — these  are  the  men 
who  do  not  esteem  the  ballot.  These  are  the  men  who  neglect  the 
ballot.  These  are  the  men  who  by  their  indifference  make  the 
whole  community  undervalue  the  ballot.  They  are  the  men 
whose  example  is  copied  by  the  next  rank  below  them.  And 
their  example  is  copied  by  the  next  rank  below  them.  And  theirs 
is  copied  by  the  next  rank  below  them.  It  is  the  highest  class  that 
leavens  the  second  ;  it  is  the  second  that  leavens  the  third  ;  and  it 
is  the  third  that  leavens  the  last — for  influences  go  down  in  grada- 
tion.    And  if  our  best  citizens  have  made  up  their  mind,  or  so  con- 


eebi:mftion  of  tee  ballot.  \  83 

d  ict  themselves  ttiat  people  have  a  right  to  think  that  they  have 
made  up  their  mind,  that  the  ballot  is  an  insignificant  thing,  a  mat- 
ter of  pure  indiflerence,  then  down  to  the  bottom  of  society  men 
will  say,  "  Oh  !  it  is  a  matter  of  indifference  ;  and  I  can  do  what  I 
have  a  mind  to  with  it.  I  see  that  the  best  men  do  not  think  that 
it  is  of  any  account ;  I  see  that  the  minister  daes  not,  and  that  his 
parishioners  do  not,  and  that  the  prosperous  merchant  does  not  think 
that  it  is  of  any  account ;  I  see  that  they  only  vote  occasionally  by 
way  of  change,  and  that  habitually  they  do  not  vote.  From  what 
I  hear  them  say  of  the  ballot  I  judge  that  they  regard  voting  as 
child's  play.  And  as  it  is  of  so  little  account  to  them,  I  will  take 
hold  of  it  and  see  if  I  cannot  make  something  out  of  it.  I  have  a 
right  to."  It  is  the  indifference,  the  false  witness  of  those  classes 
in  the  community  who  are  well-to-do  that  brings  the  ballot  into 
such  great  peril  all  through  the  whole  community.  If  they  had 
honored  it ;  if  they  had  revered  it ;  if  by  their  practice  they  had 
made  men  feel  that  they  regarded  it  as  the  vital  germ  of  society  • 
if  their  consciences  had  fluttered  around  about  it ;  if  their  sensibili- 
ties had  given  color  to  it ;  if  they  had  instructed  their  children,  and 
been  themselves  instructed  in  the  house  of  God  in  regard  to  it ;  if 
they  had  in  every  way  borne  witness  to  their  intense  appreciation 
of  the  value  of  that  which  is  the  very  beginning  atom  of  our  Ameri- 
can society,  then  there  would  not  have  been  such  a  mournful  per- 
version of  the  ballot  all  the  way  through  society.  It  is  their  indif- 
ference that  throws  the  Government  into  the  hands  of  crafty 
managing  men. 

The  excuses  made  for  this  gross  and  treasonable  neglect  are 
not  worthy  of  the  men  who  make  them.  They  are  not  willing 
to  expose  themselves  to  conflicts  with  the  great  unwashed  throng. 
They  are  unwilling — these  self-indulgent  men  ;  these  men  who  have 
been  corrupted  by  their  prosperity — to  go  out  and  take  the  rough- 
and-tough  of  political  duty,  and  mix  with  the  disagreeable  people 
whom  they  would  be  obliged  to  mix  with.  They  would  like  to  be 
wax  candles  burning  in  golden  candle-sticks.  They  are  willino-  to 
dig  for  money ;  they  are  willing  to  work,  stripped  from  shoulder 
to  shoulder,  if,  when  they  put  their  hand  in  the  Avallow  they  may 
bring  out  gold  ;  but  they  are  not  willing,  for  the  sake  of  good  morals, 
and  good  laws,  and  good  policies,  and  good  magistrates,  to  quit 
their  slippers,  and  their  comfortable  parlors,  where  they  spend 
their  cozy  evenings,  after  the  labor  of  the  day  is  done.  Oh,  it  is 
BO  much  pleasanter  to  go  and  hear  Nilsson  sing  than  to  attend  pri- 
maries and  contend  against  the  lower  elements  in  the  community  ! 


184  BEDEMPTION  OF  THE  BALLOT, 

Was  there  ever  a  more  flagitious  excuse,  or  one  so  unworthy  of  man- 
hood and  religion  ? 

But  it  is  said,  "  Things  are  managed  so  that  a  good  man  only 
registers  the  decrees  of  had  men.  They  get  together,  and,  by  their 
craft  and  cunning,  settle  what  is  to  be,  and  who  is  to  be  ;  and  you 
find  yourself,  when  you  go  out,  like  a  green  fool  going  out  to  be 
plucked,  voting  what  your  masters  have  .fixed  for  you."  Well,  how 
came  you  so  green  ?  How  did  it  come  to  pass  that  crafty  men  got 
ahead  of  you  ?  No  patriotic  man  has  a  right  to  let  a  crafty  man  be 
smarter  than  he  is.  No  man  has  a  right  to  let  anybody  be  more 
nimble  in  plotting  against  the  commonwealth  than  he  is  in  work- 
ing for  it.  It  is  as  possible  for  good  men  as  for  bad  men  to 
combine.  If  you  made  it  your  interest  to  serve  the  public  as  much 
as  these  scheming  men,  these  crafty,  web-spinning  politicians  make 
it  their  interest  to  serve  themselves,  in  the  management  of  political 
afiairs,  do  you  not  suppose  you  could  outmeasure  all  their  trickery 
and  cunning  by  your  solid  honesty  and  integrity  ?  It  is  a  shame 
that  some  men  will  do  from  the  woi-st  motives  what  the  highest  mo- 
tives do  not  inspire  other  men  to  do.  It  is  a  shame  that  a  man  who 
loves  the  commonwealth  will  not  do  as  much  to  serve  it  as  a  man 
will  who  does  not  care  for  it,  and  only  wants  to  fleece  it.  It  is  a 
shame  that  one  man  should  find  himself  willing  to  do  from  selfish- 
ness, and  under  the  influence  of  the  nastiest  passions  of  the  human 
heart,  what  another  man  finds  himself  unwilling  to  do  under  the  in- 
fluence of  honesty,  and  industry,  and  foresight,  and  care,  and  devo- 
tion, and  patriotism,  and  virtue,  and  religion  itself.  Is  not  this  a 
terrible  account  ?     And  yet,  is  it  not  true  ? 

When  a  good  man  says,  "  Politics  are  in  such  a  state  that  it  will 
do  no  good  for  me  to  meddle  with  them,"  he  reads  his  own  condem- 
nation. If  you  say,  "  Things  are  badly  arranged,"  then  re-arrange 
them,  I  hold  that  a  council  of  good  and  virtuous  men  opposed  to 
the  evil  men  who  conduct  political  afiairs,  would  carry  everything 
before  them  in  any  community. 

But  men  say,  "  We  have  so  much  business  that  we  are  unable  to 
give  the  time  which  would  be  necessary  to  enable  us  to  compete 
with  bad  men  who  give  their  whole  time  to  politics.  They  of  course 
get  the  advantage  of  us,"  You  are  like  men  on  a  prosperous 
voyage,  with  all  their  property  on  the  ship,  who,  when  the  ship 
springs  a  leak,  say,  "  We  are  so  busy  making  the  voyage,  that  we 
have  no  time  to  stop  the  leak."  You  will  have  time  to  founder  if 
you  do  not  stop  it !  You  are  like  a  man  whose  house  is  full  of  pleas- 
ant things,  and  who  is  in  the  midst  of  agreeable  company,  and  has 


BEBEMPTION  OF  THE  BALLOT,  185 

not  time  to  extinguish  the  fire  which  has  broken  out.  The  fire  will 
put  you  out  if  you  do  not  put  it  out !  You  are  like  a  general  who 
is  so  busy  with  the  maps  of  his  campaign,  that,  when  the  enemy 
comes  down  on  his  flank,  and  is  about  to  rout  him,  he  has  not  time 
to  rise  up  and  go  out  to  fight ! 

All  the  mischiefs  tnat  make  taxation  burdensome  ;  that  lay  bur- 
dens on  men's  shoulders  heavier  than  they  can  bear  ;  that  run  up  the 
Poor-house  tax,  the  Jail  tax,  the  Hospital  tax,  and  the  Ring  taxes — 
these  all  exist  because  you  are  so  busy  that  you  cannot  attend  to 
your  political  duties.  You  cannot  look  after  the  interests  of  the 
community  ;  so  the  devil's  tax-gatherers  go  out  and  levy  taxes ;  and 
you  groan  and  groan,  and  cheat  and  cheat,  and  say,  "  Oh,  well,  there 
is  no  harm  in  dodging  the  taxes  !  The  system  of  imposing  taxes  is 
a  cheat  anyhow."  You  fight  fire  with  fire";  and  so  you  go  into  part- 
nership with  the  devil  in  order  to  get  the  dividends  ! 

r  affirm  again,  that  this  willful,  shameful,  outrageous  indifference, 
the  want  of  patriotism  and  conscience,  the  want  of  industry  and 
concert,  the  want  of  combination,  the  v/ant  of  patient  perseverance 
and  enterprise,  among  good  men,  has  corrupted  the  common  people 
in  the  matter  of  voting;  and  brought  more  peril  on  the  ballot  than 
all  other  causes  put  together.  And  you  will  never  turn  back  the 
stream  of  corruption  until  you  begin  reformation  there. 

Then  it  is,  when  alarming  mischiefs,  bred  and  brooded  by  this 
great  mass  of  lazy,  prosperous  men,  take  on  forms  of  threat  and 
disaster,  that  we  hear  the  cry  coming  from  them,  "  Let  us  have  a 
Vigilance  Committee  ;  and  let  us  catch  some  of  these  rogues  and 
hang  them  to  a  lamp  post !"  Yes,  you  betray  the  community  fii'st 
by  indolence  and  neglect,  and  then  you  attempt  to  carry  it  into  revo 
lution  in  order  to  cure  some  of  the  mischiefs  which  you  have  caused. 
You  blow  it  up  at  both  ends — -at  the  top,  by  your  bad  example,  and 
at  the  bottom,  by  your  worse  advice. 

Ah  !  the  most  unwholesome  thing  in  this  world,  in  the  long  run, 
is  promiscuous  hanging  to  lamp-posts.  Though  you  may  have  the 
advantage  at  the  beginning,  you  will  not  at  the  end.  When  good 
men  combine  to  expel  monsters,  and  it  is  understood,  monsters  will 
combine  to  expel  good  men.  And  when  it  comes  to  revolution,  bad 
men  will  have  the  advantage.  As  long  as  good  men  go  by  law  and 
precedent,  and  hold  to  the  sacredness  of  the  laws  of  society,  they 
have  the  staff  of  power ;  but  the  moment  they  abandon  these  things 
they  throw  the  staff  of  power  into  the  hands  of  bad  men.  And 
Avhen  I  see  respectable  newspapers  and  respectable  men,  in  an  out- 
burst of  red  indignation,  crying,  "  Let  us  have  a  Vigilance  Com- 
mittee, and  snap  judgment  on  these  men,  and  hang  half  of  them  !"  I 


186  BEDEMPTION  OF  THE  BALLOT. 

regard  it  with  a  horror  which  I  have  no  words  to  describe.  It  is  an 
outrage  and  an  abomination.  The  tongue  of  a  man  who  utters  such 
words  as  those  ought  to  wither  in  his  mouth. 

In  view  of  these  statements  in  regard  to  the  danger  of  the 
ballot,  I  remark,  first,  that  there  is  very  little  gain  from  any 
uprising  of  the  people  which  merely  shifts  the  scenes,  and  leaves  the 
same  immorality  at  work.  It  was  well  for  Elijah  to  kill  four  hun/- 
dred  and  fifty  of  the  prophets  of  Baal  ;  but  Baal  was  not  killed. 
And  the  king  and  queen,  who  were  Baal's  prime  ministers,  still  re- 
mained. The  same  morbific  influences  existed  as  before.  And  in  a 
few  days  the  prophet  ran.  Then  Baal  came  back.  And  if  now 
the  same  immorality  exists  in  men's  minds  and  thoughts  and  feelings 
and  practices  in  regard  to  the  ballot  as  hitherto,,  in  the  language 
of  Watts,  you  will  only  change  the  place^  and  keep  the  pain.  You 
will  remove  the  present  actors  ;  but  new  letters  will  spell  other 
names  ;  and  substantially  the  same  thing  will  go  on.  That  is  not 
reformation.  There  is  no  reformation  in  the  community  unless  the 
Avhole  community  are  lifted  up  to  a  higher  level.  When  the  com- 
munity are  so  lifted  up,  and  they  begin  a  new  procedure,  then  only 
will  there  be  reformation. 

Not  that  these  things  ought  not  to  be  done.  They  ought  to  be 
done.  These  bad  men  ought  to  be  overtaken  and  convicted  and 
severely  punished.  They  ought  to  be  utterly  ousted.  But  even 
if  they  are,  that  will  not  be  reformation.  It  Avill  only  be  pre- 
paration for  reformation.  The  reformation  is  to  begin  in  you 
and  in  me.  There  is  to  be  a  reformation  in  the  church,  in 
schools,  in  the  household,  and  in  commercial  circles.  We  must 
rise  to  the  argument  of  American  liberty,  and  enter  into  a  convic- 
tion of  the  responsibilities  and  dignities  and  grandeur  of  the  Ameri- 
can ballot,  as  we  have  never  yet  done.  We  must  redeem  the  ballot 
by  throwing  about  it  a  new  life  and  sanctity.  If  we  cannot  do  that, 
the  less  we  talk  about  reformation  the  better. 

What  do  you  think  of  a  reformation  where  one  of  the  professed 
reformers  rides  through  the  streets  throwing  out  five-dollar  bills  by 
handfuls,  to  evoke  the  cheers  and  good  fellowship  of  the  Irish  popu- 
lation ?  Do  you  suppose  if  the  men  on  the  other  side  who  bribed 
the  ballot-box  yesterday,  were  every  one  of  them  hung,  and  another 
set  of  men  should  rise  up  on  your  side  to  bribe  the  ballot-box  to- 
morrow, that  you  have  reformed  anything  ?  You  have  simply 
wreaked  vengeance  on  them,  and  taken  the  responsibility  ofi"  their 
hands  and  upon  yourselves,  and  gone  on  in  the  work  of  corruption. 

I  do  not  believe  that  both  parties  are  equally  corrupt  (I  would 
not  undertake  to  settle  that  question) ;  but  I  do  believe  that  to  a 


BEDEMPTION  OF  THE  BALLOT  187 

gi-eat  extent  prominent  men  of  both  parties  have  permitted  them- 
selves to  make  the  vote  venal.  One  set  of  men  say,  "  Boys,  every 
vote  shall  be  worth  five  dollars  in  money  to  you."  So  the  boys" 
know  beforehand  Avhat  they  are  working  for  ;  and  they  go  to  work 
and  get  votes — manufacturing  them.  And  everybody  knows  that  if 
the  population  should  increase  as  the  votes  do,  we  should  be  an. 
immensely  populous  nation  in  a  very  short  time  ! 

Another  style  of  doing  it  is  this  :  after  the  election  is  carried, 
money  is  gathered,  and  the  principal  runners  go  about  saying, 
"  Here,  boys,  is  some  money  that  we  have  left  over.  You  may  as 
well  have  it.  Divide  it  among  yourselves."  It  is  a  comfortable  pile, 
and  they  remember  it.  And  the  next  time,  after  the  thing  is  all 
done,  the  victors  say,  "  Well,  boys,  here  are  a  few  thousands  of  dol- 
lars left  which  you  can  have,"  This  is  done  on  our  side  as  well  as 
on  the  other.  It  is  not  called  bribing,  because  the  money  is  not  paid 
out  or  promised,  /)er  capita,  beforehand.  One  side  bribe  one  way,  and 
the  other  side  the  other  way  ;  but  it  is  bribery,  whether  it  is  before 
or  after,  open  or  secret,  direct  or  indirect.  It  is  the  devil's  work, 
whichever  side  does  it,  and  it  corrupts  the  policy  and  procedure  of 
men. 

Money  must,  not  be  allowed  to  be  a  legitimate  factor  in  politics. 
And  if  you  say,  "  The  time  has  not  come  for  this  reform  ;"  if  you 
say,  "  TVe  cannot  rise  to  so  high  a  plane  at  once,"  then  I  say.  You  are 
no  reformer.  I  declare  to  you,  it  is  better  that  any  party  should  go 
into  a  minority,  be  exiled,  and  begin  to  rise  from  the  bottom  by  the 
power  of  a  moral  principle  which  shall  gather  about  it  a  faith  and  a 
fervor  which  are  irresistible,  than  that  it  should  undertake  to  carry 
on  a  momentary  and  present  scheme  by  resorting  to  the  old 
causes.  If  you  are  going  to  use  money  to  corrupt  votes  and  voters, 
by  influences  addressed  to  the  lower  nature  of  man,  you  do  not  be- 
long to  the  party  of  reform  ;  you  belong  to  the  old  party. 

Ofticos  must  cease  to  be  put  into  the  political  market,  and 
scrambled  for.  The  civil  service  of  this  nation  is  an  organized  and 
standing  threat  at  the  liberties  of  the  nation.  If  the  enginery  of 
government  is  to  be  parceled  out  as  a  reward  for  political  services ; 
if  in  great  cities  government  patronage  is  to  be  distributed  for  jjarty 
purposes  ;  if  men  in  subordinate  ofiices  are  continually  to  be  put  in 
and  put  out,  and  put  in  and  put  out,  in  accordance  with  the  interests 
of  one  side  or  the  other  ;  if  the  vast  and  every  year  increasing  num- 
ber of  places  for  distribution  are  to  be  put  up  for  sale  on  no  other 
principle  than  this,  I  do  not  believe  that  this  Government  can  long 
maintain  its  integrity.  Such  a  procedure  is  manufacturing  a  poison 
which  will  destroy  its  vitality  ;  anJ  I  tliink  tiiat  one  of  the  things 


188  BEDEMPTION  OF  TEE  BALTjOT. 

wliicli  this  administration  should  inaugurate  and  carry  forward 
to  a  victorious  result,  is  the  reform  of  the  civil  service.  For  now, 
every  Custom-house  in  the  land  is  a  bribery  shop ;  and  every  office 
in  the  land  is  a  bribe,  for  perverting  and  corrupting  the  man  who 
holds  it,  and  the  man  who  gives  it — an  evil  to  the  whole  community, 
■  deadening  the  national  conscience, 

No  man  must  be  held  to  be  respectable  who  connives  with  any 
party,  or  who  abets  any  set  of  men  in  iniquity  for  advantage  to  his 
own  interest. 

Do  you  suppose  that  all  the  gigantic  villainy  which  has  been 
going  on  in  New  York  has  been  without  the  privity  of  capitalists 
there  ?  A  man  told  me  himself  that  one  came  to  him,  saying,  "  If 
you  Avill  give  me  half  that  you  can  save,  I  will  see  that  you 
are  not  taxed  on  your  property  as  you  have  been  assessed." 
Said  the  man,  to  whom  this  offer  was  made,  "  That  will  not  do : 
I  should  like  to  pay  less  if  I  could  ;  .but  I  do  not  see  how  I  can  get 
rid  of  paying  as  I  have  been  assessed."  Said  the  other,  "  If  you  will 
give  me  half  that  you  can  save,  I  will  see  that  you  are  assessed  less." 
"  I  have  no  objection  to  being  assessed  less,"  says  the  man.  And  he 
was  assessed  less.  And  he  told  me  he  saved  ten  thousand  dollars  by 
that  operation.  In  other  words,  his  property  was  assessed  twenty 
thousand  dollars  less  than  it  had  been.  And  do  you  suppose  that 
men  who  had  ton  million  doUiars'  worth  of  property,  had  no  under- 
standing as  to  how  the  taxes  were  to  be  levied  ?  Do  j'-ou  suppose 
there  has  been  no  silence  and  no  connivance  in  this  matter  ? 

I  think  that  men  who  have  been  factors  in  wickedness — very 
wicked  men — ought  to  be  punished  ;  but  it  does  not  seem  to  me  that 
they  ought  to  be  made  scape-goats.  They  cannot  bear  the  sins  of 
all  those  who  lie  concealed  back  of  them.-  And  it  ought  to  be  under- 
stood that  men  who  connive  at  public  dishonesty  blast  their  own 
reputation. 

We  must  learn  that  nothing  will  preserve  society  but  the  living 
force  of  earnest  men.  It  is  a  great  mistake  on  the  part  of  men  who 
have  learned  the  benefit  of  institutions,  of  laws,  of  what  may  be 
called  the  machinery  of  civil  government,  that  they  attempt  to  put 
off  upon  laws  and  institutions  the  work  which  can  only  be  done  by 
a  permanent  living  force ;  that  they  attempt  to  make  a  fight  against 
the  passions  of  men  without  any  personal  inconvenience  to  themselves. 
Men  get  tired  of  individual  effort  in  the  work  of  i-eformation,  and  would 
be  glad  if  laws  could  be  enacted  which  would  take  the  whole  respon- 
sibility from  their  shoulders.  But  such  a  thing  cannot  be.  I  believe 
that  laws  regulating  the  drinking  customs  of  society  are  expedient 
and  necessary  as  auxiliaries ;  but  laws  which  shall  be  expected  to  be 


BEDEMPTION  OF  TEE  BALLOT.  189 

institutional  forces,  and  do  the  work,  and  save  us  the  trouble  of  keep- 
ing up  a  living  force,  are  snares  and  delusions.  Yet  men  are  leaning 
tha^  way.  They  want  the  church  to  take  care  of  the  community's 
morals  ;  they  want  the  courts  to  take  care  of  commercial  affairs ; 
they  want  the  magistrates  to  do  the  citizens'  duties.  We  are  put- 
ting on  institutions  and  laws  and  men  in  official  stations  that  which  • 
can  only  be  done  well  by  the  public  sentiment  of  the  whole  people. 

Now,  in  regard  to  this  matter  of  reformation,  it  is  simply  pre- 
posterous to  expect  that  any  Citizens'  Committee,  or  any  organized 
body,  alone,  will  take  it  into  their  hands  and  carry  it  forward.  There 
must  be  a  living  thought,  and  a  persistent  effort,  on  the  part  of  the 
great  body  of  citizens,  or  else,  no  matter  how  well  things  may  be- 
gin, they  will  not  end  well. 

That  is  one  reason  why  it  is  absolutely  necessary  that  religion 
should  teach  more  on  this  subject.  If  there  was  ever  a  time  when 
it  was  necessary  for  the  pulpit  to  bring  to  men  a  consciousness  of 
their  every-day  duties  to  the  State,  and  to  the  age  in  which  they 
live,  this  is  that  time.  A  man's  conscience  never  acts  except  in  the 
sphere  in  which  it  was  educated  to  act.  It  only  measures  what  it 
is  used  to  measuring.  If  you  do  not  educate  a  man's  conscience  to 
measui'e  politics,  it  never  will  measure  politics.  If  you  educate  it 
simply  to  measure  affairs  in  the  household,  it  will  measure  those  af- 
fairs, and  no  others.  If  you  only  educate  it  to  measure  business  or 
professional  matters,  it  will  measure  these,  but  will  be  incompetent  to 
measure  anything  outside  of  these.  And  if  the  church  is  going  to 
educate  the  conscience  of  the  commimity  so  that  it  shall  be  ade- 
quate to  the  emergency  of  the  time,  it  must  teach  men  that  to  be 
good  citizens  they  must  give  as  much  time  as  is  necessary  to  main- 
tain a  good  public  sentiment,  and  a  good  public  practice,  and'  the 
institutions  of  justice,  though  it  take  half  their  time. 

One  thing  more.  While  we  are  bound  to  bring  up  the  judo-- 
ment,  and  bring  up  the  tone  of  conscience,  among  men,  let  us  not 
give  way  for  one  moment  to  weakness  or  to  cowardice.  There  are 
a  great  many  who  throw  up  their  hands  and  say,  "  Well,  the  experi- 
ment of  self-government  is  a  failure,  at  any  rate  in  cities.  We  have 
tried  it,  and  it  is  an  utter  failure."  I  deny  it !  This  thing  has  not 
been  fought  out.  It  has  not  failed  ;  it  must  not  fail ;  and  by  the 
help  of  God  it  shall  not  fail.  Self-government  is  best  in  the  coun- 
try and  in  the  city.  Self-government  is  feasible  in  the  country  and 
in  the  city.  Self-government  can  be  maintained  in  Brooklyn 
and  in  New  York.  We  have  not  put  forth  our  energy  yet.  We 
have  not  really  roused  ourselves  up  to  the  occasion  yet.  But  we 
shall  do  it.     And  woe  to  that  vatic'aator  who  stands  in  the  spirit  ai 


190  BEDEMPTION  OF  THE  BALLOT. 

once  of  laziness  and  cowardice,  saying,  "No  use,  no  use ;  all  up,  all 
up  !"  I  smite  him  on  his  mildewed  lips  and  say,  Peace,  croaking 
raven!  It  is  not  an  experiment  tried.  There  is  power  in  the 
church.  There  is  power  in  the  hearts  of  good  men  ;  in  the  hearts 
of  the  educated ;  in  the  hearts  of  the  plain  middle  class ;  in  the 
hearts  of  the  toiling,  laboring  men.  They  want  more  light ;  they  want 
more  time ;  they  want  more  brotherhood  and  fellowship.  If  you 
that  are  comfortable  do  not  choose  to  go  among  your  fellow  men, 
and  make  yourself  as  one  of  them ;  if  you  are  not  willing  to  carry 
light,  and  knowledge,  and  persuasion,  and  intelligence,  down,  to 
them,  then  you  must  expect  to  meet  the  consequences.  But,  if  the 
best  men  in  the  community  will  rouse  themselves  up,  and  feel  that 
all  men  are  their  brethren,  and  bring  right  influences  to  bear  upon 
them,  and  set  wholesome  examples  before  them,  sparing  no  time  and 
no  zeal,  a  reformation  will  be  established,  and  will  be  maintained 
from  generation  to  generation.  And  if  so  gigantic  a  mischief  as 
that  of  the  corruption  of  the  ballot  shall  be  overcome  in  this  na- 
tion, it  will  be  one  more  evidence  of  the  potency  of  popular  self- 
government. 

Wiien  the  late  civil  war  broke  out  in  this  country,  all  Europe 
said,  "  Now  you  will  see  that  great  clumsy  Government  go  to 
pieces.  It  cannot  bear  the  strain  of  war."  There  never  was  a 
Government  that  bore  i^  so  well.  "  Oh,"  said  the  London  Times, 
"  they  have  only  danced  ;  they  have  not  paid  the  piper  yet !"  The 
time  came  to  arrange  for  paying  the  debt ;  and  never  did  a  people 
vote  so  largely  to  pay  out  their  own  money.  "  But  they  have  not 
paid  it  yet."  They  have  been  paying  it  for  about  seven  years,  in 
the  midst  of  temptations  to  repudiation  such  as  the  devil  never  plied 
men  with  before.  There  was  a  cry  from  the  grave  of  every  man 
who  had  fallen  in  the  struggle,  saying,  "  Stand  to  your  faith  and 
honesty ;"  and  they  did  stand.  And  the  nation  has  overwhelmed 
with  disaster  every  man  who  counseled  repudiation. 

And  now,  having  shown  that  in  circumstances  of  great  trial 
there  was  enough  of  intelligence  and  true  morality  among  us  to 
compass  such  achievements  as  maintaining  ourselves  through  war 
and  the  payment  of  the  debts  of  war,  let  us  show  that  when  intes- 
tine corruption  threatens  to  destroy  us,  there  is  recuperative  power 
among  the  citizens  of  such  a  Republic  as  this  to  medicate  and  cure 
this  evil  more  speedily  and  more  thoroughly  than  any  other  disease 
was  ever  cured.  Then  we  shall  have  worked  out  a  more  glorious 
consummation  than  that  which  was  conceived  by  our  fathers. 
Our  institutions  will  shine  out  with  new  light ;  men  who  sit  in  dark- 
ness in  the  far  regions  of  the  earth  will   look  to  us  with   renewed 


BEDEMPTION  OF  TEE  BALLOT.  191 

confidence ;  the  banner  of  liberty   will  unroll  its  folds ;  and  God 
will  bless  us. 

Stand  to  the  work  of  maintaining  your  integrity  and  honor; 
give  time  to  it ;  uphold  the  men  who  are  laboring  for  the  common 
weal,  and  God  will  give  you  victory.  And  in  heaven,  if  not  on 
earth,  you  will  rejoice  to  see  something  of  that  which  now  in  tears 
you  are  accomplishing. 


PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

Our  Father,  we  thank  thee  for  the  knowledge  which  thou  hast  imparted 
of  thyself.  Though  it  does  not  compreheud  all  of  thy  being;  though  thou 
art  greater  than  our  uttermost  thoughts  can  compass,  so  large  that  we 
cannot  conceive  of  thee;  yet  thou  hast  brought  thyself  near  to  us  through 
Jesus  Christ ;  and  we  discern  that  which  was  vague  and  is  vague  to  those 
who  have  not  known  him,  made  known  to  our  understanding,  rendered 
intelligible  to  our  want,  and  brought  near  to  our  affection.  We  thank  thee 
for  all  that  thou  hast  inspired  in  us  of  knowledge  by  the  brooding  of  the 
Spirit.  We  thank  thee  for  the  hope,  for  the  yearning,  for  the  aspii'ation,  for 
the  faith,  vouchsafed  to  us;  and  we  still  stretch  out  our  hands  to  thee,  know- 
ing that  tliou  canst  not  send  blessings  upon  our  hearts  as  thou  dost  send  rain 
upon  the  flowers ;  but  we  know  that  in  becoming  like  thee  thou  wilt  trans- 
form us,  and  quicken  in  us  whatever  is  divine,  and  help  us  to  rise  above  that 
which  is  low,  and  of  the  earth  earthy,  and  bring  forth  in  ourselves  that  which 
is  of  the  Spirit,  that  we  may  compreheud  thee  more  and  more.  And  growing 
toward  that  which  we  learn  and  know,  may  we  be  more  and  more  qualified 
to  increase  our  knowledge.  Thus  may  we  grow  in  grace,  and  in  the  knowl- 
edge of  our  Lord  and  Savior  Jesus  Christ. 

Grant,  we  beseech  of  thee,  thy  blessing  to  rest  upon  thy  Church  univer- 
sal ;  upon  all  the  branches  of  it ;  upon  all  those  who  are  walking  in  commu- 
nion with  thee,  whatever  may  be  their  fellowship.  May  the  power  of  the 
Spirit  among  thy  people  grow  more  and  more  abundant.  We  pray  for  the 
diffusion  of  those  influences  which  have  thus  far  so  enriched  the  world; 
which  have  restrained  iniquity;  which  have  given  power  to  virtue;  which 
have  advanced  thy  cause  among  the  nations  of  the  earth  until  this  day. 

Lord,  we  pray  that  thy  power  may  be  augmented  among  men.  Still  we 
cry.  Thy  will  be  done  upon  earth  as  it  is  done  in  heaven.  And  we  pray  that 
thou  wilt  make  thy  churches  wise  to  discern  the  si-zns  of  the  times,  and  thy 
ministering  servants  fearless  to  do  the  things  which  are  needed.  And  we 
pray  that  chou  wilt  revive  thy  work.  Wilt  thou  grant  that  by  the  power  of 
an  enlightened  conscience,  and  by  a  judgment  formed  through  conscience 
thy  people  may  be  able  to  take  hold  of  the  great  work  of  the  day  in  which' 
they  live.  Cleanse  the  temple.  Build  foundations  where  they  should  be 
builr.  Rear  up  the  structures  of  society  upon  pure  foundations.  May  thy 
glory  shine  in  this  whole  land.  And  when  men  shall  inquire  after  our  educa- 
tion, our  thrift,  and  our  great  strength,  and  happiness,  and  prosperity,  may 
they  discern  that  it  is  the  Spirit  of  God  that  dvrells  among  us,  and  has  been 
the  reason  and  cause  of  all  these  things.  And  so  may  the  name  of  God  be 
glorified  among  us. 

And  we  pray  for  the  diffusion  of  principles  of  justice,  and  of  truth,  and  of 
love,  and  of  sympathy  among  men,  which  have  been  to  us  so  great  a  blessing, 
and  which  are  yet  to  bear  their  fruits  abroad  in  all  the  earth. 


192  BEDEMPTION  OF  TED  BALLOT. 

Oh!  hasten  the  day  when  man  shall  not  be  the  worst  enemy  of  man;  when 
a  feeling  of  true  brotherhood  shall  spring  up  among  all  nations ;  when  we 
shall  know  how  to  love  our  neighbors  as  ourselves. 

Cleanse  our  hearts,  we  pray  thee.  Cleanse  our  households.  Cleanse  the 
cities  in  which  wa  dwell.  Cleanse  the  whole  land,  and  the  whole  world, 
and  make  haste,  and  bring  to  pass  the  promised  glory  of  the  latter  day,  when 
all  the  earth  shall  see  thy  salvation.  And  to  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the 
Spirit  shall  be  praises  evermore.    Amen. 


PRAYER  AFTER  THE  SERMOK 

Our  heavenly  Father,  we  beseech  of  thee  that  thy  bles'sing  may  rest  upon 
the  word  which  has  been  spoken.  May  we  be  clothed  with  the  true  spirit  of 
Christian  men,  acting  for  the  welfare  of  the  commonwealth.  May  we  love 
thee,  and  each  other,  and  the  State,  and  all  its  institutions.  May  we  abhor 
that  which  is  evil,  and  spare,  with  pity  and  compassion,  all  those  who  are 
tempted.  While  we  punish,  may  we  still  pity.  While  we  condemn  every 
evil,  and  punish  the  evil-doer,  may  we  remember  that  the  sign  of  Christ  is 
on  hiHi.  And  may  we  not  turn  ourselves  into  beasts,  as  though  we  were 
pursuing  beasts.  May  we  have  the  Spirit  of  our  Master,  which  works  by  love 
and  sympathy.  And  while  pursuing  sin  and  transgression,  and  sweeping 
them  from  the  earth,  may  we  know  how  to  take  care  of  the  transgressor  and 
the  sinner,  and  endeavor  to  cure  them  from  the  evil  of  their  way. 

Deliver  us  from  all  temptation.  Make  us  mightier  for  good  than  the 
influences  around  about  us  are  for  evil.  Give  us  a  faith  which  shall  sustain 
us  in  all  the  varied  trials  of  this  life.  And  when  at  last  thou  shalt  have  done 
with  us  on  earth,  take  us  to  thine  heavenly  kingdom,  thi'ough  riches  of  grace 
in  our  Lord.    Avxen. 


XL 

The  Unity  of  Man. 


INVOCATION. 

Our  Father,  wilt  thou  look  from  out  of  heaven,  and  bring  lights  out 
from  that  light  which  is  unapproachable.  Give  us  joy  out  of  thine  own  un- 
diminished joy.  Give  us  peace — that  peace  which  passeth  all  understanding. 
Shed  upon  us,  to-day,  the  sense  and  the  joy  of  sonship ;  and  in  the  midst  of 
our  own  weakness,  and  of  our  conscious  imperfections,  may  we  feel  that  we 
are  thine,  and  that  our  strength  and  our  glory  are  of  God.  So  may  we  be 
lifted  up  by  thy  mercy,  and  comforted  by  thy  love.  We  pray  that  we  may 
be  delivered  from  the  thrall  of  care ;  that  we  may  come  rejoicing  into  thy 
sanctuary ;  that  our  hearts  may  be  let  loose  to-day.  And  wc  pray  that  in 
fellowship  of  service,  in  thanksgiving,  in  supplication,  in  the  worship  of  God, 
we  may  find  ourselves  united  together  in  the  bond  of  an  eternal  union. 
Grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  every  service  of  instruction,  and  all  the  exercises 
of  the  day,  may  be  pleasing  to  thee,  and  profitable  to  us,  through  Jesus  Christ 
our  Redeemer.    Amen. 


TIE  TJIITY  OF  MAI. 


"  And  hath  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men  for  to  dwell  on  all  the 
face  of  the  earth,  and  hath  determined  the  times  before  appointed,  and  the 
bounds  of  their  habitation  ;  that  tbey  should  seek  the  Lord,  if  haply  they 
might  feel  after  him  and  find  him,  though  he  be  not  far  from  every  one 
of  us."— Acts  XVII.  26,  27. 


This  was  a  great  condescension  on  the  part  of  a  Jew.  The  Jews 
had  been  taught  not  only  that  tliey  Avere  God's  peculiar  people,  but 
that  they  should  become  the  reigning  peoj^le  of  the  globe.  They  had 
come  to  think  that  they  were  better  made  up  than  any  other  nation. 
Every  nation  thought  that  of  itself  ;  but  they  had  been  taught  that 
all  nations  should  come  bowing  down  to  them.  There  was,  they 
supposed,  to  be  a  kingdom  which  should  spread  throughout  the 
whole  earth ;  but  they  supposed  it  was  to  be  a  kingdom  in  which 
Jerusalem  should  be  the  capital,  and  the  Jews  the  governors.  And 
all  the  race  of  mankind  were  to  be  subject  to  them,  and  gradually 
absorbed  into  their  nationality  and  their  faith. 

In  other  words,  the  Jews  thought  about  the  kingdom  of  God 
throughout  all  the  world,  very  much  as  each  denomination  of  Chris- 
tians does  to-day.  They  think  that  the  time  is  coming  when  Christ's 
kingdom  is  to  spread  throughout  all  the  earth  ;  but  the  way  in  which 
they  think  it  is  to  be  spread,  is,  that  one  sect  shall  open  its  mouth 
and  swallow  up  all  the  other  sects.  This  is  the  way  in  which  they 
think  unity  is  to  come.  We  have  not  traveled  far,  therefore,  from 
the  prejudiced  condition  of  the  Jews. 

When  Paul  stood  before  an  Athenian  audience  and  said,  "  God 
has  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  the  earth,"  he  Avas  substantially 
saying  to  them,  "  You  are  as  well  made,  as  well  born,  as  we  are." 
He  had  risen  a  great  way  beyond  the  Jewish  prejudices.  He  had 
entered  far  into  that  condition  which  has  come  to  be  more  general 
since — the  spirit  of  universal  consciousness.  He  liad,  in  part, 
though  not  perhaps  definitely,  entered  into  a  knowledge  of  the  work 

Sunday  Mopning,  Nov.  19, 187L     Lesson  :  Acts  XVIL   Hymns  (Plymouth  C!ol- 
lection) :  Nos.  212,  463,  C;«. 


196  THE  UNIT  I  OF  MAN. 

of  God  in  all  nations,  and  under  all  forms  of  faith.     It  was  sub- 
stantially d  declaration  of  brotherhood. 

The  statement  is,  that  there  is  a  substantial  unity  of  the  races  of 
the  world.  It  would  be  so  understood  by  the  term  "  one  blood,"  by 
those  to  whom  he  was  speaking. 

Every  nation  in  antiquity  had  a  mythical  origin  different  from 
every  other.  Each  nation  had  its  own  line  by  which  it  traced  itself 
back  to  some  definite  origin  which  made  it  different  from  other 
nations.  It  was  a  declaration,  therefore,  which  conflicted  in  another 
way  with  the  Greek  notion  as  much  as  it  transcended  the  Jewish 
notion  of  the  unity  of  the  human  family. 

The  apostle  had  not  entered  upon  the  psychological  questions 
involved  in  this  subject.  He  could  not  have  done  it.  They  were 
not  born.  The  world  was  not  prepared  to  receive  nor  to  dfscuss 
them.  He  declared  the  substantial  unity  of  the  race  for  all  moral 
purposes. 

"  God  hath  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men  for  to  dvvell  on  all  the 
face  of  the  earth,  and  hath  determined  the  times  before  appointed." 

Another  reading  would  make  it,  God  hath  caused  all  nationSy 
being  of  one  blood,  to  dwell  upon  the  face  of  all  the  earth,  and  hath 
appointed  their  places  and  their  times  /  that  they  should  seek  the 
Lord  if  happily  they  might  feel  after  him,,  and  Jind  him,  though  he 
be  not  far  from,  every  one  of  us. 

For  purposes,  then,  of  sympathy,  and  of  helpfulness,  and  of 
partnership  in  the  fruits  and  blessings  with  which  men  are  most 
favored,  they  are  substantially  a  unit.  The  human  race  is  enough 
one  to  create  a  partnership  in  all  those  elements  which  are  of  the 
most  value  to  civilization  and  religion.  There  has  been  so  much 
light  and  so  much  darkness  thrown  by  recent  research  on  the  history 
of  man  on  earth,  and  the  question  of  the  relationships  of  the  differ- 
ent races  has  been  debated  under  such  fiery  interests  and  passions, 
that  men  need  to  have  marked  out  for  them  with  more  definiteness 
w^hat  are  facts  and  what  are  fancies.  And  in  this  matter  it  is  a  part 
of  the  duty  of  the  minister  to  instruct  his  people.  It  is  his  business 
to  be  cognizant  of  all  things  which  are  going  on  in  the  world  about 
him ;  to  take  notice  how  science  and  literature,  and  advancement 
in  any  direction,  are  affecting  the  moral  sense  of  the  community. 
The  speculations  which  relate  to  the  origin  of  men  in  this  world,  and 
the  deductions  Avhich  are  drawn  from  these  speculations,  are  produc- 
ing an  effect,  and  a  twofold  one  ;  and  in  both  cases  it  is  mischievous. 
On  the  one  hand,  it  is  unsettling  to  the  faith  of  many  persons  in 
religious  truth.  It  is  teaching  them  that  the  word  of  God  is  not 
reliable.  It  is  teaching  them  to  reject  the  theologies  which  are 
framed  upon  it.     It  is  ungirding  their  loins,  and  sending  them  out 


THE  UN  ITT  OF  MAN.  197 

without  any  distinctive  faith — certainly  without  any  historic  faith, 
if  any  at  all. 

And  again,  there  is  a  class  of  persons,  who,  seeing  such  mischiefs, 
refuse  to  read  ;  who  refuse  to  believe  anything ;  who  steadily  shut 
their  eyes  and  close  their  ears*,  who  study  their  Bibles  more  dili- 
gently, and  say  that  they  will  have  none  of  science.  And  they  err 
in  the  opposite  direction  as  really,  though  perhaps  not  so  fatally,  as 
those  whom  we  have  just  described,  who,  cai-elessly,  without  proper 
equipment  for  investigation,  embrace  fancies  without  theories,  and 
theories  for  approved  facts. 

As  to  the  antiquity  of  the  race,  although  there  has  been  much 
of  sm-mise,  and  something  of  extravagance,  it  certainly  may  be  said, 
I  think,  that  the  old  chronologies  were  deficient  and  incorrect ;  and 
that  in  so  far  as  the  beginnings  of  the  human  race  are  concerned, 
they  must  be  abandoned.  The  world  is  older,  and  the  race  of  man 
began  its  career  further  back  than  the  six  thousand  years  which  we 
have  been  accustomed  to  give  to  chronological  science.  We  are 
to  remember  that  chronology  is  a  human  invention.  There  is  no 
authoritative  statement  on  the  subject  in  sacred  Scripture.  That 
does  not  undertake  to  tell  how  many  years  the  world  has  been  in 
existence.  It  does  not  meddle  with  the  question.  It  does  not  under- 
take to  assign  periods  of  duration  to  the  different  nations  or  devel- 
opments of  the  human  race.  That  is  all  purely  human  work.  And 
to  set  this  aside,  and  reconstruct  a  theory  of  chronology,  leaves  the 
Scriptures  untouched.  We  do  not  touch  any  statement  of  the  Holy 
Writ  in  removing  the  date  of  man's  first  existence  thousands  of 
years  back. 

A  variety  of  studies  have  converged  upon  the  method  of  God 
in  creation.  It  is  generally  agreed  in  those  circles  where  the  means 
of  knowledge  are  best,  in  regard  to  the  purely  material  world,  that 
all  present  organizations  have  probably  developed  from  preceding 
and  lower  forms ;  as  those  developed  from  anterior  ones ;  and  so  on, 
back  to  the  lowest  germs.  This  is  a  prevalent  doctrine  in  regard  to 
the  vegetable  kingdom.  It  is  also  a  prevalent  tendency  of  belief  in 
regard  to  the  animal  kingdom  below  man.  In  other  words,  it  is 
believed  that  the  divine  method  of  creation  was  not  peremptory 
absolute  and  instantaneous  ;  but  that  the  method  of  creation  was 
that  of  growth  through  a  long  series  of  gradually  evolving  develop- 
ments. It  is  not  disputed  that  it  is  a  divine  creative  act  that  sus- 
tains it.  But  it  is  still  a  question  whether  the  divine  power  acted 
instantaneously  to  create  perfect  orders  of  vegetable  life  and  of  ani- 
mal life,  or  whether  it  began  its  creative  force  at  the  germ  form,  and 
then  developed  gradually  in  an  unfolding  and  upward  scale.     The 


198  TEE  UNITY  OF  MAN. 

assertion  of  the  divine  operation  remains  the  same  in  either  case.  It 
is  simply  a  question  of  the  method  in  which  creation  was  unfolded. 

In  regard  to  man,  there  are  three  views.  First,  the  race  are  sup- 
posed to  have  descended  from  one  pair  in  the  Garden  of  Eden.  It 
has  been  believed  that  they  were  perfect  at  their  creation  ;  that  by 
moral  delinquency  they  fell  into  degeneration ;  and  that,  in  conse- 
quence, all  the  race,  proceeding  from  them,  have  inherited  their  de- 
generation, and  fallen  into  various  degrees  of  barbarity  and  savage- 
ism.  And  the  whole  work  of  religion  is  supposed  to  be  the  work 
of  recuperation  from  this  evil. 

A  second  view  is,  that  the  history  in  Genesis,  of  the  crea- 
tion of  men,  relates  to  only  one  line  of  the  human  race  ;  and  that 
there  were  besides  that  several  distinct  origins,  each  one  setting  in 
motion,  as  it  were,  a  line  of  distinct  sequences.  There  are  indica- 
tions in  the  Bible  itself,  it  has  been  held,  of  the  existence  of  other 
peoples  on  the  earth.  It  is  said  that  Cain,  going  forth,  deplored  the 
danger  which  threatened  him  ;  but  if  it  is  true  that  Adam  and  Eve 
and  their  sons  were  the  only  human  creatures  then  on  the  earth, 
what  had  he  to  fear  ?  It  is  claimed  that  the  fact  that  he  recognized 
his  peril,  and  feared  that  in  wandering  forth  he  would  be  slain, 
indicates  that  there  were  existing  populations  at  that  time. 

A  third  view  regards  man  as  but  an  extension  of  the  animal 
kingdom;  or,  it  asserts  that  by  the  gradual  process  of  unfolding, 
men  came  into  being,  in  strict  analogy  with  all  the  other  unfoldings 
which  are  going  on  in  the  animal  or  vegetable  world.  This  view 
gives  great  offense  to  the  common  people,  on  moral  grounds.  It 
gives  great  offense  to  them,  also,  on  scientific  grounds,  it  being  de- 
clared to  be  a  hypothesis,  in  its  nature  unprovable — a  mere  imagi- 
nation— a  reasoning  which,  like  the  progress  of  a  kangaroo,  pro- 
ceeds by  mighty  jumps.  Unb ridged  intervals  there  are,  in  the 
proof,  it  is  said,  which  are  fatal  to  scientific  certainty.  It  is  de- 
clared that  the  whole  of  it  is  rather  an  instance  of  the  fantasy  of 
science,  or  of  the  imaginative  powers  of  scientific  men,  than  of  a 
calm,  cool,  collected  view,  and  the  deductions  which  are  to  be  drawn 
from  it. 

Now,  these  speculations  have  had  no  inconsiderable  effect  on  the 
public  mind,  and  they  bid  fair  to  have  more.  In  so  far  as  they  set 
aside  the  received  account  of  the  creation,  they  seem  to  overthrow 
the  authority  of  the  sacred  Scriptures.  Many  inconsiderate  and 
hasty  persons  have  fallen  from  their  faith  in  consequence.  They 
have  adopted  these  speculations,  and  the  reasoning  and  dogmatism 
of  certain  schools  in  science,  and  thrown  away  the  Word  of  God— ■ 
the  historic  record  of  the  growth  of  the  races.     It  is  not  to  be  de- 


THE  UNITY  OF  MAN.  199 

nied  that  there  are  multitudes  of  men  at  the  present  time  who  are 
standing  in  doubt  or  in  positive  unbelief  on  this  ground.  And  for 
these  reasons  it  is  that  they  have  been  infected  by  the  skepticism  of 
science. 

These  speculations  have  also  tended  powerfully  to  enhance  those 
influences  which  lead  the  sti'ong  to  despise  the  weak.  Nations  have 
tended  to  domineer  over  nations  on  the  ground  that  there  was  no 
natural  relationship,  and  no  common  obligation.  Races  have  claim- 
ed superiority  over  races.  And  it  has  been  said  that  there  was  no 
sin  in  slavery ;  that  slaves  were  not  human  beings  in  the  same  sense 
that  the  Caucasian  races  were ;  that  the  order  of  creation  was  that 
each  thing  should  stand  in  its  place,  and  that  God,  having  unfolded 
them  by  unfolding  different  peoples,  and  having  brought  them  up 
to  different  plan'es,  each  should  stand  in  its  j^lane ;  and  that  the 
plane  of  the  African,  the  Ethiopian,  was  that  of  service,  and  sub- 
mission to  a  superior  race. 

A  new  philosophy  of  rights,  therefore,  has  come  into  vogue.  It 
is  taught  that  the  only  rights  which  men  generically  have,  are  those 
which  they  can  assert  and  defend ;  that  there  is  no  charter  of  rights 
which  belong  to  all  alike — to  the  strong  and  the  weak,  the  good  and 
the  bad,  the  civilized  and  the  uncivilized ;  that  right  is  only  a  ques- 
tion which  marks  certain  degrees  of  progress  and  power,  and  not 
anything  which  is  antecedent  and  moral.  And  generally  there  is  a 
feeling  of  doubt  and  uncertainty  which  painfully  interferes  with  the 
old  certainty,  and  lessens  men's  zeal,  often,  in  benevolent  work,  and 
casts  over  many  minds  the  sad  bewilderment  of  unwelcome  doubts. 
For,  though  some  men  run  eagerly  into  skepticism,  no  deep  nature 
can  be  in  an  unbelieving  and  irreligious  frame  of  mind  and  not 
suffer. 

I  remark,  then, 

1.  The  origin  of  man  may  modify  many  notions;  but  whatever 
theory  prevails  at  last,  there  are  two  points  which  will  not  be 
touched — and  these  are  points  which  are  vital  and  decisive :  first, 
that  man  has  come  upon  the  earth  by  a  divine  method,  whatever 
that  method  may  be ;  and  secondly,  that  whenever  the  facts  of  that 
method  are  finally  settled,  they  will  be  in  harmony  with  the  whole 
moral  system  of  the  world.  There  is  a  moral  system,  and  there  is  a 
superior  nature,  that  qualify  the  views  which  relate  to  the  naturei 
and  development  of  man.  These  are  disclosed  Avithout  question  ;' 
and  they  will  circle  into  sympathy  and  harmony  with  the  superior 
truths  which  we  already  know.  But,  indeed,  in  so  far  as  our 
duties  are  concerned,  we  are  far  more  interested  in  knowing  xohat 
man  is,  than  in  knowing  how  he  came  to  be  what  he  is.     It  is  not 


200  THE  UNITY  OF  MAN. 

uninteresting  to  me  to  know  how  my  son  reached  home  for  the  fes- 
tivities of  Thanksgiving,  or  of  the  Holidays  ;  but  it  is  far  more  in- 
teresting to  me  to  know  that  he  is  there,  than  to  know  by  what 
road  he  came.  It  may  be  of  a  good  deal  of  interest  to  know  how 
some  unknown  benefactor  has  liquidated  the  debt  that  seemed  likely 
to  sweep  away  your  prosperity ;  but  it  is  a  great  deal  more  to  the 
point  to  know  that  the  mortgage  is  paid  or  lifted,  if  you  never  in 
the  world  know  how  it  came  to  be  done. 

It  is  for  us  to  know  what  man  is ;  of  what  he  is  susceptible.  He 
is  here.  He  exists.  He  may  be  studied  in'  his  present  condition. 
He  may  be  studied  in  all  his  possibilities.  These  are  questions  of 
more  importance  than  to  know  the  road  which  he  took  to  get  here, 
or  the  influences  which  operated  to  bring  him  here. 

And  yet  there  is  no  natural  incongruity  between  these  two 
themes.  There  ought  not  to  be,  and  ultimately  there  will  not  be,  any 
dissensions  between  true  faith,  true  religion,  and  a  true  acquaintance 
with  the  natural  globe.  At  the  present  state  of  the  world's  devel- 
opment, there  is  this  infelicity,  that  they  do  not  work  in  harmony 
together ;  but  I  hope  that  by  and  by  it  will  be  found  that  there  is  no 
essential  discrepancy  between  them.  For  one,  I  am  a  patient  waiter 
in  regard  to  the  question,  How  did  man  come  to  the  state  in  which 
he  now  is  ?  I  am  not  in  haste  to  accept  the  deductions  of  science.  I 
am  not  in  a  spirit  to  reject  them.  I  am  waiting  for  light.  I  do  not 
undertake  to  prophesy.  I  merely  say  that  I  am  bound,  on  every 
question,  to  receive  light,  come  from  what  quarter  it  may.  I  am 
glad  to  say  that  my  faith  is  such  that  I  am  not  afraid  of  light,  from 
whatever  source.  And  in  regard  to  the  origin  of  the  human  family, 
let  men  soberly,  deliberately,  and  by  scientific  processes,  investi- 
gate. And  let  none  hinder  them,  nor  refuse  to  receive,  on  due 
ground,  the  real  truth.  For  the  truth  is  better  to  us  than  anything 
else  can  be.  I  am  a  patient  waiter  for  the  settlement  of  that  ques- 
tion. 

But  as  to  the  present  condition  of  the  human  family,  which  is  the 
most  important  question,  I  am  very  clear  and  confident.  The  race 
of  man  is  in  such  a  sense  one  as  to  be  the  subject  of  the  same  rights 
and  the  same  duties.  And  the  same  hopeful  development  belongs 
to  the  possibility  of  their  future.  The  whole  race,  and  all  its  parts^ 
are  heirs  alike  of  the  same  moral  benefits  which  came  from  Jesus 
Christ. 

Men  are  one  in  general  structure — physical,  intellectual,  moral, 
social,  and  civil.  Men  are  substantially  one  in  this,  that  all  the 
great  elements  of  nature  stand  relaled  to  them  alike.  Men  are  one 
in  that  all  spiritual  elements  fit  them  really  alike.     Whatever  may 


TEE  UNITY  OF  MAN.  201 

be  these  questions  as  to  how  they  came,  whatever  may  be  these 
questions  of  antiquity  and  ethnology,  the  question  of  the  future  is 
not  embarrassed  nor  perplexed  by  them.  If  there  were  tenfold  more 
ethnological  diversity  than  any  one  pretends,  it  would  be  unimport- 
ant by  the  side  of  moral,  social,  and  civil  unity.  I  do  not  care  if 
one  man  came  from  monkeys,  another  from  alligators,  and  another 
from  lizards,  and  another  from  anything  you  please.  If  I  find  that, 
having  come,  they  are  amenable  to  the  same  processes  of  reasoning 
and  to  the  same  styles  of  education  and  development ;  if  I  can  mold 
and  turn  them  alike,  I  do  not  care  where  they  started  from.  That 
is  comparatively  unimportant.  Although  the  diversity  of  origin 
is  frequently  employed  to  distract,  yet  this  very  moral  unity,  this 
substantial  identity  of  structure,  reaches  back  and  disarms  dis- 
crepancy of  theological  investigation.  All  skeptical  tendencies  are 
overcome  if  we  recognize  the  fact  that  all  men — Mongols,  Cauca- 
sians, Ethiopians,  and  Malayans — are  essentially  alike.  When  that 
question  is  once  settled,  all  the  important  questions  are  settled. 

Consider,  however,  some  of  these  alleged  diversities,  as  over 
against  the  greater  moral  unities.  The  physical  diversity  of  the 
race-stocks  on  the  earth  is  not  such  as  to  impair  the  ai'gument  for 
substantial  unity.  There  is  the  same  plane  existing  throughout  all 
nations.  We  hear  a  great  deal  about  the  ethmoid  bones,  and  the 
length  of  the  heel,  and  the  curvature  of  the  chin,  and  the  style  of 
the  hair,  and  all  these  little  incidental  matters.  But  what  would  be 
thought  if  we  should  argue  in  the  same  way  in  respect  to  military  or- 
ganizations, and  should  take  the  jacket  of  the  sailor  as  over  against  the 
coat  of  the  soldier ;  and  the  snub-plume  of  the  artillery  as  over  against 
the  feather  of  the  other  arm  of  the  service  ?  What  would  be  thought 
if  you  should  pick  out  little  tit-bit  things  here  and  there  and  urge 
them  against  the  substantial  unity  of  the  army  to  which  all  these  be- 
long. And,  without  going  into  any  detail,  how  absurd  it  is  to  speak 
of  the  anatomical  structure  of  man  to  show  that  the  races  are  sub- 
Btantially  different  and  divisible !  There  is  precisely  the  same  plan 
throughout  the  earth,  of  bone,  of  nerve,  of  artery,  of  structure,  of 
genei*ation,  of  gestation,  of  nutrition,  of  increment,  and  of  decrement. 
These  things  are  substantially  the  same  in  one  race  that  they  are  in 
the  others,  whether  it  be  African,  or  Asiatic,  or  Anglo-Saxon,  or  Nor- 
man, or  Dane.  The  great  functions  of  the  human  system  are  exactly 
the  same,  and  the  brain  does  its  work  in  the  same  manner  in  some 
men  as  in  others,  whether  they  be  on  a  low  or  a  high  plane.  The 
liver,  the  heart,  the  stomach,  the  spleen,  and  every  part  of  the  body 
are  the  same  in  all.  The  organs  of  the  race  are  the  same.  If  it  were 
true  that  the  African  had  his  heart  in  his  liver,  that  would  be  a  pretty 


202  THU  UNITY  OF  MAN. 

tough  argument ;  but  does'it  make  any  difference  to  me  if  the  hair 
is  kinked  ?  The  African's  bone  is  the  same  as  yours  is ;  and  his  mar- 
row is  the  same  as  yours  is.  And  though  there  is  a  slight  variation 
between  races,  the  surgeon,  the  nurse,  the  dietitian,  would  treat 
all  nations  of  the  earth  as  though  there  were  simply  minor  differ- 
ences between  them.  There  are  no  greater  differences  between  na- 
tions than  between  individuals  of  the  same  nation ;  and  they  must 
be  all  treated  alike. 

It  is  assumed  in  anatomy  and 'physiology  and  hygienics  that  the 
whole  race  on  earth  are  substantially  framed  on  one  plan,  according 
to  a  single  idea.  And  the  same  functions,  the  same  morbific  influ- 
ences, everything  concerning  mankind,  are  pronounced  by  physiol- 
ogy, by  philosophy,  and  by  religion,  to  be  the  same  in  one  nation 
as  in  another.  And  yet  men  read  skeptical  treatises ;  men  are  in- 
fluenced by  servile  notions  which  wai'p  and  bias,  not  simply  their 
moral  sense,  but  apparently  their  physiological  sense  also. 

You  hear  men  talking  on  shipboard,  and  in  the  cars,  and  on  the 
street,  and  in  the  store,  like  garrulous  know-nothings,  and  saying, 
"  Look  at  the  flat  nose  of  the  African.  Do  you  suppose  that  that  is 
the  same  creature  that  he  is  who  has  a  Grecian  nose  ?"  Well,  is  not 
the  sense  of  smell  the  same  in  the  African  that  it  is  in  anybody 
else  ?  Does  it  make  any  great  difference  whether  the  organ  of  smell 
is  flat  or  sharp?  Everywhere  the  nose  is  substantially  the  same 
organ,  created  in  the  same  way,  for  the  same  purposes,  and  acted 
upon  by  the  same  agents  in  the  same  mannei*.  The  variation  of 
superficial  form  does  not  touch  the  question  of  unity  of  function, 
and  unity  of  structure — the  combined  function  in  all  the  races  of 
the  globe. 

The  races  of  men  are  also  alike,  are  in  unity,  are  one,  in  the  things 
which  thoroughly  set  them  off  from  the  lower  animal  kingdom,  and 
draw  a  sharp  line  of  demarcation  between  the  brute  creation  and 
the  human  race. 

There  is  a  vast  difference  between  one  part  of  the  human  family 
and  another,  but  I  do  not  know  that  it  is  greater  than  the  difference 
which  exists  in  a  single  household.  In  the  same  family  we  find 
one  child  blazing  with  the  genius  of  imagination,  and  foretokens  and 
forelookings  of  this  radiant  faculty,  and  another  child  squarely 
practical,  without  a  spark  of  imagination.  In  the  same  family  we 
find  one  child  as  full  of  song  as  the  spring  day  is  with  all  the  birds 
in  the  woods,  and  another  as  dumb  as  though  only  turtles  lived. 
One  child  shall  be  clear  in  practical  matters,  and  stupid  in  ethical ; 
and  another  child  shall  be  clear  in  ethical  matters,  and  stupid  in 
practical.     One  shall  have  extraordinary  intelligenoe,  and  another 


THB  UNITY  OF  MAN.  203 

Khali  be  in  the  twilight  of  insanity  or  idiocy.  And  does  anybody 
say  that  the  family  is  not  a  unit  because  children  of  the  same  parents 
are  different  ?  There  are  no  diversities  between  the  races  of  the 
world  on  the  great  scale  more  extreme  than  those  which  are  often 
found  in  the  family  on  the  small  scale. 

Unquestionably  the  brute  animals  have  reason  ;  but  it  is  very 
limited.  It  is  not  coherent.  It  is  not  susceptible  of  very  much 
elonsjation.  And  all  the  races  of  men  differ  from  them  in  having:  a 
mind  that  is  complex,  not  running  to  single  things,  but  competent 
to  look  into  all  things.  They  have  a  reason  that  is  coherent.  They 
have  the  power,  under  suitable  instruction,  of  developing  observa- 
tion or  logical  reasoning. 

And  this  reasoning  power  of  man  is  not  only  concurrent,  but  is 
prolongable.    It  is  educable.     It  is  susceptible  of  being  drawn  out. 

It  is  not  so  with  the  lower  animals.  You  can  carry  the  horse 
along  a  very  little  way  in  education,  and  then  he  stops,  and  all  the 
rest  is  trick.  You  can  make  a  learned  pig  pick  out  letters  and  cards  ; 
but  it  is  all  trick :  it  is  not  intelligence.  Some  lower  animals  are  so 
far  susceptible  of  education  as  to  be  able  to  learn  to  do  certain 
things  ;  but  the  process  is  not  one  of  thought  or  of  reasoning. 
Doubtless  there  is  a  reasoning  process  in  the  case  of  birds,  and  of  the 
dog,  and  the  elephant,  and  the  horse.  Though  the  dog  is  susceptible 
of  a  certain  degree  of  education,  you  never  can  carry  him  beyond  a 
very  narrow  margin.  You  cannot  civilize  him  and  bring  him  up 
to  a  state  of  higher  development.  Though  there  is  a  small  expansion 
possible  in  the  higher  class  of  animals,  the  elasticity  is  very  slight. 

It  is  different  with  men.  Even  with  the  lowest  men  it  is  differ- 
ent. The  moment  you  strike  humanity,  where  men  burrow  in  the 
ground,  and  eat  snails  and  roots,  and  live  in  caves,  or  trunks  of  trees, 
you  find  this  capacity  of  development.  If  you  take  the  greatest 
savages  and  put  them  in  better  physical  relations,  and  in  better 
moral  conditions,  they  show  that  they  belong  to  the  universal  race 
of  men.  The  great  mark  of  unity  and  similarity  throughout  the 
globe  is  in  this,  that  although  a  man  may  be  slow  and  tardy 
in  learning,  he  is  susceptible  of  knowledge,  and  you  can  carry  him 
on  and  up  from  generation  to  generation,  to  a  point  where  education 
is  easier,  and  development  is  higher.  And  it  is  found  that  through 
education  and  development  there  comes  a  stock  that  is  highly  edu- 
cated and  educable.  This  is  the  strong  mark  of  the  unity  of  the 
race. 

Another  peculiarity  which  marks  man  off  from  the  lower  animal 
kingdom,  and  which  belongs  strikingly  to  him,  is  the  sense  of  the 
beautiful.     There  is  no  proof  that  this  exists  to  any  considerable  de- 


204  TBB  UNITY  OF  MAN. 

gree  in  the  animal  kingdom.  It  used  to  be  said  that  it  did  not  exist 
there  at  all.  I  thought  it  did  not.  There  is,  perhaps,  some  faint  and 
blind  sense  of  beauty  among  some  animal  creatures  ;  but  what  it  may- 
be no  man  can  tell.  It  is  too  rude  and  low,  it  is  too  far  beneath  us, 
for  us  to  discern  it.  For  it  is  as  hard  for  one  to  understand  belotv 
himself,  as  it  is  for  him  to  understand  above  himself.  But  that  qual- 
ity belongs  to  the  human  race.  And  education  developes  it  and  regu- 
lates it.  Education  trains,  but  does  not  create,  the  sense  of  beauty. 
And  this  is  a  very  strong  point.  If  you  go  to  the  Indians,  you 
find  that  they  are  more  intensely  moved  by  the  beautiful  than  we 
are.  You  can  appeal  to  their  sense  of  beauty  by  beads,  and  pictures, 
and  ten  thousand  adornments.  And  although  this  sense  in  some  is 
rude,  and  less  educated,  and  less  refined,  it  exists  there.  And  it  is 
peculiar  to  the  whole  human  family.  Everywhere  there  is  the  i^ 
cognition  of  it,  and  the  power  to  grow  in  it. 

Still  more  striking  is  that  which  many  ascetics  think  is  unworthy 
of  men,  but  which  is  one  of  the  most  distinguishable  traits  of  hu- 
manity— the  perception  of  wit  and  humor — that  peculiarity  which 
produces  an  exquisite  sense  of  pleasure  and  laughter.  Man 
is  the  only  laughing  animal  on  the  globe.  All  races  are  united 
in  that.  Man  laughs,  and  nothing  below  him  does.  All  men 
have  a  sense  of  humor,  and  none  of  the  lower  animals  manifest 
any  such  sense.  If  any  animal  does,  it  is  the  dog ;  but  if  he  has 
it  he  cannot  give  any  hint  of  it.  I  have  sometimes  fancied, 
as  I  have  sat  and  seen  two  dogs  playing  together,  when  one  watched 
the  othei',  and  came  around  him  slyly,  and  outwitted  him,  that  I  did 
discern  a  slight  trace  of  humor  in  his  eye  ;  but  I  never  saw  a  dog 
that  was  not  sober.  And  if  sobriety  is  a  great  grace,  then  dogs  beat 
the  soberest  man  that  ever  lived  on  the  earth.  But  man  would  be 
impoverished  in  a  respect  in  which  he  cannot  afibrd  to  be  poor,  if 
the  trait  of  humor,  and  wit,  and  mirth,  were  taken  away  from  him. 
It  is  a  bounty  and  a  benefaction  of  God  to  man.  It  is  one  of  those 
elements  which  seems  almost  impossible  to  be  developed  from  below, 
according  to  any  scheme.  It  would  seem  rather  to  be  one  of  those 
qualities  which,  when  man  has  developed  to  a  certain  point,  comes 
doAvn  from  above,  he  receiving  it  from  the  other  direction. 

This  pecularity  is  not  confined  to  civilized  men,  or  to  men  of  any 
stock  on  earth.  It  belongs  to  the  Asiatic,  to  the  African,  to  the 
European,  to  the  descendents  of  the  American  forests  ;  and  it  belongs 
as  really  to  one  as  to  the  others,  though  in  different  degrees. 

So,  too,  moral  sense  is  common  to  all.  I  do  not  mean  that  con- 
science is  a  divine  interpreter ;  for  I  do  not  believe  there  is  any  such 
conscience  as  that.     I  believe  that  conscience  is  precisely  like  any 


THE  UNITY  OF  MAN.  205 

other  emotion.  It  determines  what  is  right  and  wrong  By  what 
the  understanding  says  is  right  or  wrong.  Conscience  is  an  emotion 
that  acts  concurrently  with  intellect,  and  then  gives  force  to  that 
which  the  intellect  judges  to  be  right  or  wrong.  And  it  gives 
pleasure  or  pain,  accoi'ding  to  the  nature  of  that  which  is  selected 
as  right  or  wrong. 

This  sentiment  of  conscience,  acting  concurrently  with  the  un- 
derstanding, belongs  to  the  whole  human  family.  "Where  men  be- 
lieve in  killing  their  fathers  and  mothers,  and  where  they  believe  in 
killing  their  new-born  children,  offering  them  up  to  the  Ganges  or 
to  crocodiles,  they  have  a  moral  sense,  certainly.  I  do  not  under- 
take to  say  that  it  does  not  act  according  to  a  grossly  imperfect 
Standard ;  I  do  not  undertake  to  say  that  it  is  exercised  according 
to  the  best  light ;  but  when  they  do  offer  their  parents,  their  chil- 
dren or  themselves  up  to  destruction,  they  think  it  is  right,  though 
their  understanding  is  darkened,  and  they  are  misguided. 

If  you  erect  a  false  light  on  the  shore,  and  the  pilot  steei's  right 
toward  it,  and  wrecks  his  vessel,  he  thinks  he  is  right.  He  does  not 
m^ke  shipwreck  because  he  intends  to,  but  because  the  false  light 
is  erected  on  the  shore.  Men  steer  for  such  lights  as  they  have ; 
^nd  if  those  lights  are  false,  they  will  suffer  shipwreck.  Their 
intention  is  generally  to  go  by  the  best  light  they  have. 

This  moral  sense  is  common  to  all  men — to  the  brute  savage,  as 
well  as  to  the  civilized  man.  It  is  the  foundation  of  our  life.  What 
prospect  could  there  be  of  doing  good  to  any  race  of  men  if  they 
had  not  the  rudiments  of  moral  sense  ?  But  the  rudiments  are  in 
every  race ;  and  so  there  is  encouragement.  It  is  common.  All 
men  are  alike  in  this  regard.  But  the  education  of  this  trait  is  what 
we  must  additionally  give. 

I  have  already  spoken  of  another  point — educability.  The 
whole  human  race  stand  together,  and  are  at  one,  in  this,  but  they 
are  susceptible  of  education  and  of  growth  in  their  moral,  intellect- 
ual and  social  nature — so  much  so  as  to  make  it  worth  the  while  of 
each  nation,  for  their  sake  and  for  the  sake  of  all  who  are  contiguous 
to  them,  for  the  sake  not  only  of  themselves  and  neighboring  nations 
but  of  the  whole  world,  that  influences  should  be  brought  to  bear  to 
extirpate  ignorance  and  the  mischief  that  it  works.  It  is  the  world's 
interest  to-day  that  there  should  be  no  savages  and  no  barbarians. 
It  is  the  interest  of  commerce  and  art  and  science,  it  is  the  interest 
of  civility,  it  is  the  interest  of  good  government,  it  is  the  interest  of 
humane  and  sympathetic  feeling,  that  every  nation  on  the  earth 
should  have  brought  to  bear  upon  it  those  influences  which  shall 


206  THE  UNITY  OF  MAN. 

develop  its  people,  and  lift  them  up  to  a  higher  plane.  For,  what 
Bwamps  are  to  the  neighboring  territory,  generating  miasm,  that 
barbarous  people  are  to  the  civility  of  the  globe,  infecting  it  with 
poisonous  influences. 

The  whole  world  is  susceptible  of  sympathetic  understanding, 
of  cooperation,  and  of  like  social  conditions.  It  would  be  im- 
possible to  herd  together  in  a  happy  family  all  the  d liferent  races 
of  animals.  You  can  make  a  happy  family  if  you  will  pare  their 
nails,  and  extract  their  teeth,  and  stuplfy  them.  You  can  make 
a  happy  family  by  taking  away  from  them  all  their  original 
peculiarities.  But  only  so  can  you  do  it.  And  by  a  process  of  de- 
veloping moral  and  social  influences  you  can  bring  men  of  differem, 
race-stocks  together,  and  organize  them  into  communities,  so  that 
they  sliall  understand  each  other,  and  cooperate  with  each  other,  and 
work  together,  and  carry  forward  industry,  and  promote  happiness. 
But  these  things  would  not  be  possible  if  races  were  so  diverse  as 
men  would  have  us  believe.  The  unity  of  the  race  is  shown  more 
in  these  respects  than  it  could  be  by  physical  configuration. 

The  differences  among  men  are  conspicuous  as  you  go  toward 
the  lower  elements  of  their  existence.  And  as  you  rise  from  mere 
material  structure,  from  animal  forth-puttings  of  life,  from  simple 
lower  developments — as  you  go  up  toward  civilization,  you  shall 
find  that  one  after  another  the  nations  which  come  to  themselves, 
and  which  really  have  a  full  and  perfect  development,  are  more 
like  each  other.  The  resemblance  grows  stronger  as  you  go  higher 
in  moral,  intellectual,  social  and  civil  elements.  I  think  tliat  the 
longer  race-stocks  live  together,  the  more  plain  it  is  that  they  are 
miscible — that  they  are  capable  of  being  brought  under  the  same 
influences  and  the  same  government ;  and  that  they  can  have  the 
same  unfolding,  and  the  same  destiny. 

Whatever,  therefore,  you  may  say  in  regard  to  the  strictly  tech- 
nical, physiological  argument,  when  you  come  to  look  more  largely 
at  the  race  of  man  as  it  exists  on  the  face  of  the  globe  to-day,  it 
seems  to  me  the  argument  ought  to  satisfy  any  reasonable  mind 
that  while  there  may  be  specific  differences  between  men,  they  go 
but  a  very  short  way,  and  do  not  separate  race-stock  from  race-stock, 
so  but  that  tliey  are  subject  to  the  same  necessities,  governable  by 
the  same  laws,  heirs  of  the  same  moral  aspirations  and  the  same 
destinies,  and  developed  and  made  hopeful  by  the  same  influences. 

That  is  unity  enough.  We  do  not  want  identity.  We  want 
congruity.  We  want  a  basis  for  fellowship  and  sympathy.  That 
is  enough,  and  that  exists. 


TEH  UNITY  OF  MAN.  207 

These  thoughta  are  made  emphatic  by  that  uudesigned  tendency 
to  unity  which  the  growth  of  the  world's  affairs  is  producing.  And 
this  tendency  cannot  be  suspected  of  being  founded  on  a  theory,  as 
it  is  scarcely  recognized  yet.  But  the  world,  amid  all  its  clashiugs 
and  combative  tendencies  is  working  toward  unity  of  feeling,  and 
toward  sympathy.  It  is  of  itself  quite  independent  of  the  preach- 
ing of  the  principles  of  Christianity,  by  great  world-causes,  work- 
ing toward  brotherhood. 

The  economic  and  scientific  developments  of  our  age  are  work- 
ing alike  for  all  the  nations ;  and  most  for  the  lowest.  We  talk  about 
the  benefits  which  the  economy  of  science  is  introducing  into  the 
community.  How  much  more  wealth  now  can  do  for  the  rich  than 
it  could  !  How  much  more  now  men  can  untie  the  benefits  of  civi- 
lization, whose  lot  is  cast  in  a  fortunate  sphere  !  But  we  are  not 
apt  to  think,  what  is  true,  that  those  Avho  need  the  most — the  bot- 
tom of  society — experience  the  most  benefit  from  these  develop- 
ments. It  is  the  common  man,  the  poor  man,  the  working  man, 
who  is  most  blessed  by  the  inventions  of  the  age  in  which  we  live, 
which  are  carrying  out  their  benefits  to  the  whole  human  family.  It 
is  uniting  them  all  in  a  common  benefit. 

Great  mechanical  and  commercial  impi-ovements  are  bringing 
the  whole  world  together.  The  woi'ld  is  not  so  big  as  it  Avas — 
though  it  is  a  great  deal  larger,  morally.  We  know  veiy  well  that 
the  influences  which  are  generated  in  a  neighborhood  soon  spend 
themselves  ;  that  they  do  not  go  far  from  that  neighborhood.  We 
know  that  the  thoughts  and  feelings  which  exist  in  one  nation  very 
seldom  overlap  that  nation.  We  know  that  the  ideas  of  France  are 
French  ideas,  and  that  the  ideas  of  Spain,  so  far  as  she  has  any,  are 
Spanish  ideas ;  they  are  torpid ;  they  are  almost  like  the  coral ;  they 
have  received  a  fixed  form.  They  have  lost  their  life,  but  the  form 
remains.  And  so  you  find  that  Italian  ideas,  or  Greek  ideas,  or 
Turkish  ideas,  are  peculiar  to  the  people  with  whom  they  originate. 
You  find  that  in  every  nation,  almost,  there  is  a  certain  style  of 
thought  Avhich  belongs  to  that  nation  alone. 

But  now  the  tendency  of  things  is  to  break  down  these  local  in- 
fluences ;  and  the  Turk  is  borrowing  civilization  from  the  European  ; 
and  the  European,  at  last,  is  bringing  some  threads  of  knowledge 
from  Chinamen  and  the  Japanese ;  and  they  are  gathering  some- 
thing from  us.  We  are  so  proud  that  we  are  not  willing  to  admit 
their  superiority  ;  but  now  we  are  coming  to  understand  that  there 
were  people  who  existed  and  knew  something  before  we  were  born. 
And  we  are  borrowing  something  from  these  sources. 

Mountains  were  once  effectual  separations.     They  no  longer 


208  TEE  UNITY  OF  MAN. 

divide.  When  the  hand  of  science  burned  through  the  Alps,  it 
was  a  sign  for  the  world ;  and  God  said,  "No  more  let  the  moun- 
tains be  a  barrier."  Mountains  went  down  at  that  touch,  and  rivers? 
changed  their  courses,  or  were  easily  bridged  or  ferried.  And  there- 
are  no  longer  barriers  between  nations.  Ideas  are  physical  things, 
and  rise  higher  than  the  highest  mountains ;  and  overleap  all  ob- 
stacles. Oceans  are  nothing  now,  since  we  have  thi'own  a  nerve 
across  them ;  and  Europe  speaks  instantaneously  to  America-. 
Oceans  are  gone,  or  exist  only  as  tn  means  of  communication  to 
bring  the  nations  together.  Now  it  is  coming  to  pass  that  when  an 
important  event  happens  in  any  locality,  it  throws  its  influence 
round  and  round  the  globe.  If  there  be  an  earthquake  on  the  west- 
ern coast  of  South  America,  it  is  known  all  over  the  world  before 
the  wave  westward  reaches  the  Sandwich  Islands.  Once,  events 
happening  in  Europe  died  long  before  they  got  far  beyond  its 
bounds ;  but  now  nothing  important  happens  in  any  part  of  th» 
globe  that  the  whole  world  does  not  at  once  receive  more  or  less  of 
the  influence  or  knowledge  of  it. 

And  these  things  are  but  the  beginning  of  Avhat  is  to  come.  They 
are  but  hints  of  what  we  may  anticipate.  There  is  going  to  be  mor© 
and  more  progress  in  these  directions.  What  with  intercommuni- 
cation, and  travel,  and  the  multiplying  of  knowledge,  and  the  in* 
troduction  of  various  means  of  education,  it  is  becoming  easier  to- 
day to  I'each  the  different  parts  of  the  world  than  it  was  a  few  years 
ago  to  reach  the  island  of  Great  Britain.  It  is  easier  to-day  to  send 
the  substantial  facts  occurring  in  the  community  over  this  whole 
continent,  than  when  I  was  a  boy  it  was  to  send  the  news  of  an  elec- 
tion through  the  little  state  of  Connecticut.  The  world  is  no  longer 
a  hundred  provinces.  Its  different  parts  are  coming  together  sym- 
pathetically. They  are  becoming  so  related  that  they  are  like  the 
different  parts  of  the  body.  As  when  you  touch  the  head  the  foot 
feels  it,  and  the  hand  feels  it,  and  every  other  part  of  the  physical 
organism  feels  it ;  so  you  cannot  strike  a  pass  in  a  mountain  and 
not  have  it  felt  somewhere  in  the  economy  of  the  whole  nation.  The 
time  is  coming  when  you  cannot  squelch  a  barbarous  horde  in  Penn- 
sylvania without  having  it  known  throughout  the  country,  if  not 
the  world.  Men  are  becoming  moi*e  and  more  sensitive  to  that 
which  affects  each  other.  They  are  coming  more  and  more  into  uni- 
son. The  means  of  transmitting  intelligence  all  over  the  world  are 
such  that  the  whole  globe  is  coming  into  the  condition  of  one  house- 
hold. 

And  shall  we,  at  suCh  a  time  as  this,  give  way  to  the  impression 
that  the  human  race  is  a  separated,  disintegrated,  unallied  herd  of 


THE  UNITY  OF  MAN,  209 

ComlDatlve  animals — factions  in  the  lower  creation?  "Where  are 
men's  hearts  and  eyes,  that  they  give  way  to  doubt  and  fear  and 
skepticism  in  such  a  time  as  this  ? 

The  church  pi-oposes,  as  it  long  has  done,  to  move  out  on  this 
tide  !  Oh  !  the  sad  history  of  the  church  !  If  men  who  have  come 
together  with  a  desire  to  do  good,  and  to  go  right,  have  made  so 
poor  a  voyage,  what  has  been  the  voyage  of  the  human  race  and  the 
world  ?  There  has  been  human  government  stumbling,  and  over- 
laying and  smothering  the  divine  government.  The  exterior  church 
has  made  a  great  many  mistakes.  The  principle  of  divine  association 
— that  is  divine  enough  ;  but  the  church  itself  has  been  anything 
but  divine  in  this  world.  It  has  been  human  all  through,  from  be- 
ginning to  end — intensely  human.  Its  only  apology  and  excuse  for 
its  mistakes  has  been  that  it  was  human,  and  so  out  of  balance,  mis- 
takes and  trials  belonging  to  common  humanity. 

But  there  never  has  been  a  time  when  the  church  did  not  set  her 
face  to  this  one  thing — the  substantial  unity  of  the  human  race  ;  and 
teach  that  God  belonged  to  all  mankind  alike.  Long  before  any 
could  believe  in  it,  long  before  it  was  an  idea  of  philosophy,  or  was 
known  in  the  set  realm  of  commerce,  there  was  this  silent  testimony, 
beginning  with  the  few  that  came  out  from  Jerusalem.  Notable 
among  them  was  Paul,  who  in  Athens  thought  only  of  Jesus.  The 
gorgeous  temples  made  no  imjiression  on  his  mind.  There  was  not 
left  with  him  any  thought  of  the  beauty  of  the  statues.  He  stood 
and  said  to  tTie  people,  "  I  perceive  that  you  ai'e  too  superstitious. 
The  unknown  God,  whose  name  is  on  your  altars — let  me  reveal  him 
to  you — the  God  that  made  the  heaven,  and  made  the  earth,  and 
made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  the  earth,  to  dwell  together,  if 
haply  they  might  feel  after  him." 

There  is  beauty  in  unity  of  physiological  or  anatomical  pecu- 
liarities ;  but  what  is  that  compared  to  the  beauty  of  the  unity  of 
men  who  unite  in  love  and  wisdom,  and  in  building  up  the  weal  of 
the  present  and  the  glory  of  the  future  ?  Where  is  there  any  such 
unity  as  that  where  men  unite  that  they  may  seek  after  a  common 
God,  and  a  common  heaven,  with  a  common  conscience,  common 
understandings,  common  yearnings,  common  necessities,  and  a  com- 
mon destiny  ? 

The  unity  of  the  race,  standing  in  these  higher  moral  elements 
the  church  has  always  been  looking  and  praying  for. 

And  now,  when  we  propose  to  work,  let  it  be  on  the  whole  world. 
And  we  must  trust  to  the  generic  influences  of  institutions,  of  com- 
merce, and  of  civic  relations.  And  we  must  not  give  place  for  one 
hour  to  faintheartedness.     We  are  to  send  out  the  knowledge  of 


210  TffEUmTTOFMAN 

truth  and  civilization  and  religion  and  manhood  to  the  uttermost 
parts  of  the  earth. 

It  is  thought  by  some  that  the  spirit  of  missions  is  dead.  Dead  ? 
It  does  not  even  sleep.  What  is  the  spirit  of  missions  ?  Mission 
means  to  send  forth — to  go  out.  And  when  the  sun  forgets  to  send 
forth  his  light  and  warmth,  and  shed  summer  upon  the  face  of  the 
dying  winter,  and  throw  its  influence  abroad  over  all  the  earth,  then 
will  divine  love  in  the  human  heart  forget  its  mission.  Mission 
means  benevolence  ;  mission  means  brotherhood  ;  mission  means 
that  spirit  which,  looking  over  the  earth,  recognizes  that  God  m,acle 
all  m,ankind  of  one  blood.  And  that  knowledge  it  is  that  is  to  make 
us  blessed.  Let  us  realize  it.  Let  the  world  have  its  legacy,  its 
birthright,  at  last. 

And  here  it  is  that  I  reach  out  hands  to  science;  though  in 
one  point  I  feel  bound  to  caution  the  young  men  and  maidens  of 
my  church,  lest  they  make  the  mistake  which  so  many  scientific 
men,  and  excellent  men,  have  made,  of  abandoning  the  faith  of  their 
fathers.  It  is  not  because  I  dread  or  dislike  science.  I  look  upon 
her  as  God's  elect,  not  yet  knowing  her  own  mission.  I  believe 
she  is  destined  to  regenerate  religion  itself.  I  believe  that  science 
is  speaking  to  us,  and  that  we  are  to  derive  from  it  a  nobler  concep- 
tion of  God.  I  believe  that  when  the  old  primal  revelation  which 
God  made  in  the  ribs  of  the  earth,  and  in  the  structure  of  the  human 
race,  and  which  is  but  imperfectly  read — I  believe  that  when  this 
revelation  is  deciphered,  and  its  hieroglyphics  brought  out,  and  it  is 
put  alongside  of  the  revelation  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus,  the  two  rev- 
elations will  be  like  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New  Testament. 
Shining  together,  and  throwing  their  light  into  one  another,  each 
will  give  a  light  better  than  either  of  them  could  alone. 

Therefore  I  say,  "  All  hail !"  to  the  men  who  search  and  look 
after  God's  footprints.  But  while  I  say  this,  I  cannot  aiFord  to  say 
to  any  modern  deductions,  "Take  my  faith,  and  I  will  give  up  the 
God  of  my  fathers,  and  the  faith  of  my  youth."  There  is  nothing 
which  I  find  in  science  that  can  take  the  place  of  that  faith  which  I 
learned  in  my  earlier  years,  and  which  I  have  lived  on  all  my  life 
long.  I  will  take  anything  which  will  make  it  stronger  and  brighter. 
I  will  take  all  bounties  that  come  from  science,  or  from  any  other 
source,  which  have  a  tendency  to  build  up  my  higher  and  spiritual 
nature. 

I  believe  the  day  is  coming  when  the  bringing  of  men  together 
in  brotherhood  will  be  a  cooperative  work  on  the  part  of  those  who 
are  laboring  in  the  fields  of  science  and  religion.     And  that  will  be 


THB  UNITY  OF  MAN.  211 

a  blessed  day  to  live  in,  and  to  labor  in.     And  the  work  is  a  blessed 
one  to  cooperate  in. 

This  is  not  a  time  for  any  man  to  turn  back  from  this  great  work 
—the  greatest  of  all  the  things  which  religion  has  done.  Of  all  the 
triumphs  of  the  church,  of  all  her  signal  victories,  I  believe  that 
which  will  stand  higher  than  all  others,  in  the  future,  will  be  the 
work  which  she  has  attempted  to  do  for  the  scattered  community. 
I  believe  that  the  work  Avhich  has  been  done  by  the  Christian  relig- 
ion for  the  outcast  and  outlying  populations  of  the  globe  will  stand 
in  the  last  day  higher  and  more  sovereign  than  any  or  every  other 
part  of  the  work  of  the  Christian  religion  oji  earth. 

Men  and  brethren,  I  desire  to  see  a  higher  spirit  of  sympathy 
among  us,  manifested  by  all  for  the  whole  world.  I  desire  that  you 
may  strengthen  the  hands  of  those,  in  every  phase  of  life,  who  are 
seeking  to  accomplish  God's  work  among  men.  I  desire  that  from 
day  to  day,  from  every  lip,  may  go  up  the  prayer, 

"Thy  kingdom  come,  thy  -will  be  done,  in  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven.'* 


PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

We  rejoice,  our  heavenly  Father,  that  though  we  cannot  perfectly  under- 
stand thee,  our  thoughts  are  directed  toward  thy  love,  thy  mercy,  thy  wis- 
dom, thy  power,  in  which  thy  royalty  consists.  We  shall  not  understand 
thee  perfectly  until  we  are  like  unto  thee ;  yet  we  rejoice  that  thou  wilt  be 
different  from  our  thought  only  in  being  better.  We  know  not  that  where- 
with we  should  purely  behold  thy  nature.  We  are  too  selfish,  still,  to  under- 
stand that  love  and  that  benevolence  which  are  the  royalty  of  thy  disposi- 
tion. We  gather  the  fragments  of  that  which  is  best,  and  frame  them  into 
the  nobility  of  thy  nature  and  character,  and  hold  it  before  our  thought. 
Blessed  be  thy  name,  we  are  not  left  to  mold  our  conception  alone  by  our 
feeble  understanding ;  but  by  thy  Spirit  thou  dost  enlighten  us.  Thou  dost 
give  fervor  to  our  conception.  Thou  dost  break  in  upon  the  dullness  of  our 
comprehension  with  the  clearer  revelation  of  the  light  which  is  from  thy 
divine  nature.  And  yet,  our  thought  of  God  is  full  of  human  imperfection. 
When  divinely  helped,  we  do  as  children  do  when  they  are  helped  by  their 
parents,  and  are  children  still.  When  our  manhood  comes,  we  shall  put 
away  childish  things ;  but  until  then  we  walk  as  seeing  Him  who  is  invisible, 
through  a  glass  darkly.  And  yet,  how  manifold  is  the  consolation  which  we 
derive  even  from  our  imperfect  knowledge !  How  great  is  the  thought  of 
that  grace  which  thou  hast  disclosed  through  Jesus. Christ  our  Lord !  How 
hast  thou  multiplied  those  witnesses  in  every  age  who  have  lived  by  faith, 
and  have  fought  the  battle  of  faith,  and  overcome  their  enemies,  and  tri- 
umnhed  over,  all  things  that  were  against  them,  and  died  leaving  a  testimony 
of  gladness  and  of  glory!  And  the  earth  is  full,  now,  of  witnesses  of  thy 
sovereign  power,  and  of  thy  wondrous  grace.  And  we  rejoice  that  we  do 
not  follow  cunningly  devised  fables.  We  rejoice  at  that  which  is  the  sub- 
stancejof  our  faith.  Jesus  Christ.'our  Head ;  Jesus  Christ,  our  Saviour,  at  the 
right  hand  of  the  throne  on  high,  loving  us,  and  drawing  us,  by  his  Spirit, 


212  THE  UNITY  OF  MAN. 

up,  from  step  to  step,  toward  divine  perfectness— this  is  our  faith.  And  it 
does  not  deceive  us  in  dark  hours.  It  is  brighter  than  is  the  light  in  light 
hours.  It  throws  light  upon  joy  itself,  to  make  it  more  Joyful.  Who  heuve 
we  in  heaven  but  thee,  O  Lord  Jesus !  Who  is  there  on  earth  that  we  desire 
beside  thee  ?  How  do  thy  glory  and  thy  goodness  rise  above  all  comparison ! 
How  are  we  witnesses,  in  the  secrets  of  our  experience,  of  thy  presence  and 
of  thy  power!  What  has  been  thy  sustaining  grace  to  us!  When  have  we,  out 
of  the  depths  of  trouble,  called  upon  thy  name,  and  not  found  thee?  Even  if 
thou  dost  not  come  as  we  thought  thou  wouldst  come,  yet  afterwards  we 
discern  that  thou  hast  been  there.  Though  our  mind  longs  to  behold  thee, 
and  our  hands  would  take  hold  of  thee,  and  we  think  we  should  live  accord- 
ing to  our  outward  life  with  more  strength  and  comfort  if  but  once  thou 
wouldst  enter  our  dwelling  and  make  thyself  known  to  us  in  the  breaking  of 
bread,  or  in  the  bestowing  of  thy  peace  upon  us,  yet,  not  having  seen  thee, 
we  believe  and  experience  the  blessing  of  our  faith.  At  times  we  are  in 
darkness,  and  great  trouble,  and  doubt,  and  uncertainty,  and  are  baflBed,  as 
thy  disciples  once  before  were  upon  the  sea ;  and  yet,  again  and  again  thou 
comest  to  us  as  thou  didst  come  to  them  walking  in  form  upon  the  waves 
Thou  disclosest  thyself  in  darkness  andio  night,  and  dost  bring  gladness  and 
peace.  Where  thou  art,  the  morning  star  is.  Thou  art  the  bright  and  morn- 
ing Star.  There  can  be  no  darkness  with  thee.  And  at  midnight  thy  ser- 
vants sing  songs,  and  rejoice,  though  they  be  in  prison.  There  is  liberty  in 
prison  to  those  that  love  God;  and  there  is  joy  in  sorrow ;  and  there  is  rest 
in  conflict;  and  there  is  victory  in  defeat ;  and  everywhere  there  is  the  bear- 
ing about  of  the  dying  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  We  live  by  faith  of  his  suf- 
fering for  us. 

Where  is  such  friendship  as  thine?  Where  is  such  succor  as  that  which 
thou  dost  grant?  Where  are  mercies  like  those  which  thy  thoughts  bring? 
May  sve  cling  to  thee  more  closely  with  declining  years.  May  thy  servants 
still  feel  that  God  is  their  strength,  in  the  midst  of  the  turmoil  of  life,  while 
tbey  bear  (he  burden  and  the  heat  of  the  day.  May  they  be  valiant  and 
strong  upon  whose  shoulders  thou  hast  placed  responsibility.  May  the 
young  who  are  entering  upon  life  have  that  bright  hope  and  that  joyful 
fidelity  which  go  with  fealty  to  Him  who  is  their  father's  God  and  their 
God,  and  who  will  never  leave  them  nor  forsake  them. 

We  pray,  O  Lord,  that  thy  blessing  may  rest  upon  all  the  members  of  this 
congregation ;  upon  all  the  households  that  are  represented  here;  upon  the 
heads  of  families  that  are  appointed  to  be  teachers  of  the  yomig. 

We  pray  that  every  one  may  have  his  duty  revealed  to  him.  May  the 
light  fall  upon  his  path.  We  pray  that  hands  that  are  weak  may  be  strength- 
ened, and  that  hearts  that  are  tempted  by  doubt  may  be  confirmed.  Hear 
the  confessions  of  those  who  pour  out  their  heart's  sorrows  this  morning, 
acknowledging  bitterly  their  short-comings  and  delinquencies  and  sins. 
May  they  inwardly  hear  thee  saying  to  them.  Go  sin  no  more.  May  they 
hear  the  voice  of  forgiveness,  and  know  that  they  are  received  of  God. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  hear  all  those  that  to-day  make  mention  of  thy 
goodness  to  them  in  thanksgiving.  May  they  be  able  to  bring  a  full  cup  into 
the  sanctuary,  and  pray  to  the  God  of  their  salvation.  And  we  beseech  of 
thee  that  thou  wilt  hear  those  that  need  counsel,  and  that  need  light,  and  that 
need  defense,  and  that  need  strength.  And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  do  to 
each  one  severally  as  thou  seest  he  needs. 

O  Lord,  our  God,  we  pray  that  chou  wilt  grant  thy  blessing  to  rest  upon 
all  those  who  are  outcast  and  neglected,  upon  the  ignorant  and  the  wan- 
dering ;  upon  those  who  are  over-matched  by  evil,  and  cast  down ;  upon  the 
Bick  and  the  desolate;  upon  strangers  in  a  strange  land;  upon  all  that  are 


THJH  UMITT  OF  MAN.  213 

discouraged;  upon  those  whose  staff  is  broken,  and  who  seem  to  themselves 
appointed  to  the  wilderness.  And  we  pray  that  every  one  of  them  may  find 
in  thee  help.  And  raise  up  sympathizing  hearts  around  about  them— those 
that  shall  be  able  to  succor  them,  and  guide  them,  and  help  them. 

And  we  pray  that  there  may  be  more  and  more  of  the  Sprit  of  Christ 
among  men ;  and  that  we  may  recognize  that  we  are  members  one  of  another. 
And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  bind  together  this  great  nation  in  the  bonds  of 
sympathetic  brotherhood ;  and  that  all  causes  of  offense  may  be  taken  away; 
and  all  divisions;  and  all  elements  of  separation.  And  we  pray  that  more 
and  more  the  time  may  come  when  men  shall  study  the  things  which  make 
for  peace,  and  the  things  whereby  one  may  edify  another.  May  not  nations 
look  upon  each  other  as  savage  beasts  in  the  wilderness  look  one  upon 
another,  prepared  to  fight.  Grant  that  wars  may  cease.  Grant  that  there 
may  be  more  and  more  of  real  sympathy.  Grant  that  that  kingdom  in 
which  dwelleth  righteousness  may  sound  its  trumpet.  And  beside  that,  may 
no  other  sound  of  the  trumpet  be  heard  upon  the  earth. 

O,  let  thy  day  of  prediction  advance.  Unfurl  thy  banner,  Princa  of  Peace. 
Come,  thou  that  hast  shaken  the  earth.  Thou  that  hast  by  wars  chastized 
the  nations ;  thou  that  hast  cleansed  the  dark  crimes  of  the  ages  by  thy 
wrath  and  by  thy  judgments,  let  the  day  of  chastizements  pass,  and  bring 
in  the  bright  and  glowing  day  of  peace.  And  may  the  kingdoms  of  this 
world  become  the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  And  may 
he  rule  from  the  rising  of  the  sun  until  the  going  down  of  the  same.  And  to 
the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Spirit,  shall  be  praises  evermore.    Amen. 


PRAYER  AFTER  THE  SERMOK 

Our  Father,  we  pray  that  thy  blessing  may  rest  upon  us,  and  upon  all  thy 
truth.  Grant  that  we  may  know  how  to  discern  the  things  that  are  right, 
and  how  to  feel  sensibility  to  the  things  that  are  noblest  and  purest  and 
most  divine.  Lead  us  from  the  shadows  to  those  higher  grounds  where  the 
sun  shines  still.  Lead  us  above  all  the  things  that  torment  and  distract  and 
distress.  Give  us  a  clear  andsteadfast  look  into  the  spiritual  realm  where 
truth  is  not  partial:  where  it  exists  in  lis  own  full  form;  where  yet ont* 
day  we  shall  discern  it,  and  not,  as  now,  grope  for  it,  and  see  it  but  as 
through  a  glass  darkly.  Bless  us  in  the  singing  of  thy  praise  once  more. 
Go  home  with  u?,  and  prepare  us  for  the  experiences  of  this  life,  and  for  the 
heavenly  life,  through  riches  of  grace  in  Christ  Jesus.   Amen. 


XII. 

The  Fruit  of  the  Spirit. 


INVOCATION. 

Thou,  O  God,  in  thine  infinite  fullness,  art  forever  {^ving,  and  forever 
thou  hast  to  give.  Thou  dost  rejoice  iu  thine  own  benefaction,  and  art  glad  in 
the  gladness  of  those  whom  thou  dost  comfort.  Look  benignly  upon  us. 
Out  of  the  bosom  of  thy  love  let  all  thy  thoughts  toward  us  flow  this  day. 
Inspired  by  thy  rapture,  may  we  also  lift  ourselves  up  into  the  thought  of 
God's  love,  and  sympathy,  and  wisdom,  and  power,  to  feel  how  strong  we 
are  in  the  Lord,  that  art  so  weak  and  perishing  out  of  thee.  Grant  that  all 
doubt  and  fear  may  flee  away,  as  the  birds  of  night  have  gone,  and  that  all 
happy,  sweet,  comforting  thoughts  that  cheer  may  come  and  make  gladness 
in  our  hearts  this  morning.  And  grant  that  our  service  may  be  acceptable. 
Grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  we  may  have  the  living  force  of  thy  nature  to 
awaken  us  to  all  that  is  true  and  pure.  May  we  have  fellowship  one  with  an 
other.  May  we  be  found  of  thee,  that  we  may  find  thee.  And  so  grant  that, 
whether  it  be  prayer,  or  sacred  song,  or  reading  in  thy  Word,  or  words  of  in- 
struction, our  service  may  redound  to  thine  honor  and  glory,  through  Christ 
our  Redeemer.    Amen. 

12. 


THE  FEUIT  OF  THE  SPIRIT. 


"  But  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love,  joy,  peace,  long-suffering,  gentle- 
ness, goodness,  faith,  me?kness,  t«nperaace :  against  such  [or  upon  such] 
there  is  no  law."— GAii.  V.,  2^,  23. 


Paul  was  engaged  all  his  life  in  what  may  be  called  in  modern 
phrase,  a  conflict  against  High-chuvch  formalism.     I  use  the  term 
High-church  not  in  any  ofFensive  sense,  but  because  it  describes 
more  perfectly  than  any  other  term  that  is  popularly  known  the 
inordinate  esteem  of  the   instrument,  rather  than  the  end  to  be 
gained  by  the  instrument.     It  is  a  tacit  or  latent  spirit  of  worship 
of  the  machine  by  which  men  seek  to  accomplish  an  end.     In  civil 
governments.  High-church  ism  sympathizes  with  the  law,  rather  than 
with  the  people  who  are  to  be  assisted  by  the  law.     In  commerce,  it 
Bympathizes  with  money,  and  with  the  customs  which  produce  it, 
rather  than  with  all  those  elements  which  money  was  meant  to  rep- 
resent, or  to  produce,  in  civilization  and  virtue.      In  society,  the 
spirit  of  High-churchism  sympathizes  with  etiquette,  with  forms  and 
customs,  rather  than  with   the  graces  of  the   Spirit,  which  these 
forms  and  customs  were  designed  to  propagate,  or  to  inspire.     In 
religion,  it  sympathizes  with  dogma,  rather  than  with  the  spirit  of 
life  which  doctrines  should  inspire  and  produce.     It  sympathizes 
with  church  machinery  more  than  with  the  people  that  are  to  be 
educated  through  that  machinery.     And  so,  all  the  world   throuo-h 
there  is  a  universal  tendency  in  large  bodies    of  men,  or  in  men 
generically  considered,  to  lean,  through  their  senses,  to  the  external 
to  the  physical,  to  the  sensuous.     And  they  come  in  time  to  think 
more  of  that  than  they  do  of  the  invisible,  the  spirit,  the  real  es- 
Bence  which  we  seek  by  the  ministration  of  the  external. 

Now  against  this  Paul  all  his  life  long  contended.  For,  althouo-h 
he  accepted  externality,  as  every  wise  man  must;  although  he  worked 
in  conmion  Avays  and  by  common  instruments  ;  yet,  all  through  his 
career  he  Avas  seeking  to  jvoduce  a  higher  result  than  that  Avhich  can 

Sunday  Morning.  Nov,  12,  1871.     Lesson :  Rom,  xtT-     Hymns  (Plymouth  Ctol- 
lection) :  Nos  73, 107, 1:.'C3, 


2  i8  THE  FBUIT  OF  THE  SFIEIT. 

spring  from  High-churchism,  or  the  worship  of  the  instrument.  lie 
strove  against  it.  He  might  have  contended  against  it  by  attack- 
ing it  as  a  spirit  of  idolatry,  which  it  essentially  is  ;  but  he  did  it 
rather  by  exalting  the  qualities  which  all  worship  and  all  govern- 
ment and  all  education  are  meant  to  produce.  And  he  raised  up, 
and  left  to  the  world  in  his  writings,  more  noble  conceptions  of 
true  manhood  than  existed  anywhere  or  everywhere  else  among 
m^en.  I  think  we  may  say  that  we  should  never  have  known  what 
the  Evangelists  meant  if  it  had  not  been  educed,  brought  out,  in 
the  letters  of  the  apostle  Paul.  It  has  been  said  by  skeptical  crit- 
ics that  there  would  have  been  no  Christianity  if  it  had  not  been 
for  Paul — which  is  as  as  much  as  to  say  that  there  would  have  been 
no  flowers  if  there  had  not  been  rains  to  swell  the  seeds.  Very 
likely.  Paul  was  the  instrument  for  the  development  of  that  which 
was  given  to  us  in  the  Gospel.  What  Christ  planted,  blossomed 
under  the  culture  of  this  his  chiefest  apostle.  And  everywhere 
he  comes  to  one  point.  Whatever  his  argument  may  be,  Avhatever 
may  be  his  style,  and  Avherever  he  may  start,  he  still  ends  in  this  : 
A  free  man  ;  a  full  manhood  ;  tTesus  the  Model ;  God's  Spirit  the 
Inspirer  and  the  Helper.  That  is.  not  the  way  in  which  it  would 
have  been  stated  in  those  days,  because  that  was  not  the  style  of 
philosophy  that  prevailed  then  ;  but  it  is  vernacular  to  us.  It  ac- 
cords with  our  mode  of  thinking  and  talking.  Everywhere  and  al* 
ways  his  exhortations  had  reference  to  the  best  qualities  in  man  ;  to 
their  inspiration  by  the  Holy  Ghost ;  to  their  development  and  edu- 
cation until  they  should  come  to  supreme  power ;  until  they  should 
be  superior  to  everything  else.  The  thing  at  which  he  was  aiming 
constantly  and  consistently  was  perfection.  That  ye  may  he  perfect ; 
that  ye  may  he  presented  without  spot  or  hlemish  ;  that  ye  may  be 
perfect  men  in  Christ  Jesus  ;  that  ye  may  he  huildings — when  the 
figure  was  architectural ;  that  ye  may  bring  forth  fruit,  and  the  best 
fruit — when  the  figure  was  that  of  a  vine.  There  was  one  ideal  all 
the  while,  and  that  was  perfection  in  manhood. 

The  Spirit  is  spoken  of  in  our  text.  "  The  fruit  of  the  Spirit " 
are  the  words  employed.  It  is  that  divine  effluence  which  fills  all 
creation,  which  is  itself  life,  and  which  works  life  in  everything  ac- 
cording to  its  kind.  There  is  a  warmth  of  temperature,  if  I  may  so 
gay,  pervading  the  universe.  There  is  a  divine  summer  which  broods 
upon  men,  and  brings  forth  harvests  in  their  souls.  That  we  cannot 
understand  it,  define  it,  or  limit  it,  is  its  glory.  That  being  must  needs 
be  small  whom  our  minds  can  compass.  How  large  would  that  man 
be  whom  a  flea  could  perfectly  understand  ?  And  how  large  would 
God  be  if  a  man  could  perfectly  understand  him  ?     So  illimitable  is 


TH£J  FB  UIT  OF  TEE  8PIEIT.  2 1 9 

the  divine  mind,  that  the  largest  and  best  developed  men  still  leave 
God  remote  and  inexplicable.  He  is  to  the  finite  mind  mysterious 
and  incomprehensible.  Human  beings  are  incapable  of  grasping 
the  realities  of  the  divine  existence.  They  cannot  be  compassed  by 
any  powers  which  we  possess.  "  Canst  thou,"  says  the  record,  "by 
Bearching  find  out  God  ?  canst  thou  find  out  the  Almighty  unto  per- 
fection ?" 

So,  then,  the  Divine  Spirit,  of  which  the  apostle  is  here  speaking, 
I  describe  rather  poetically  than  philosophically,  simply  because 
philosophy  does  not  touch  such  a  question  as  this.  It  is  that  great 
life-force  which  pervades  space  and  time,  and  is,  as  I  believe,  the 
source  of  all  vitality,  in  so  far  as  man  is  concerned.  And  this  divine 
and  brooding  influence  brings  forth  fruit. 

Now,  fruit,  regarded  in  the  light  of  the  orchard,  the  garden,  or 
the  vineyard,  is  the  most  perfect  form  of  development  to  which  a 
tree  or  plant  can  come.  Fruit  is  the  thing  for  which  all  the  en- 
ginery of  roots  and  branches  and  leaves  was  appointed.  All  these 
are  servants.  They  toil  and  wait.  The  fruit  only,  sits  regent.  It 
is  the  final  result — the  perfect  thing.  The  tree  can  never  go  a  step 
further  than  its  fruit.  It  can  stop  and  go  back,  and  begin  again ; 
but  it  goes  only  to  that  limit ;  and  when  it  has  reached  that,  it  has 
reached  perfection.  The  fruit  is  the  measure  of  the  tree's  possi- 
bility. 

So,  when  we  speak  of  man  as  a  tree,  or  a  vine,  and  when  we 
speak  of  the  fruit  of  that  tree,  or  vine,  we  refer  to  that  divine  sum- 
mer which  quickens  man,  and  renders  him  productive,  and  brings 
forth  in  him  the  highest  results  of  which  he  is  capable.  When  a 
man  comes  to  that  which  is  called  "  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  "  in  the 
New  Testament,  he  reaches  his  full  limit  as  a  creature  of  time. 
When  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  in  man  is  spoken  of,  that  which  is 
meant  is  the  fairest,  the  noblest,  the  best  thing  that  he  can  be 
brought  to,  by  the  brooding  of  the  divine  Mind.  It  is  the  final  re- 
Bult  which  is  wrought  out  by  all  the  influences  for  good  which  are 
brought  to  bear  upon  him.  It  is  that  which  his  higher  nature  ulti- 
mates  in. 

It  becomes  a  matter,  thofl,  of  considerable  importance  to  know 
what  is  this  fruit ;  this  ideal  and  perfect  thing ;  this  result,  which  a 
man  can  be  brought  to  only  by  the  whole  nourishing  influence  of 
God.  What  is  that  for  Avhich  we  are  to  look  only  when  the  very 
soul  and  summer  of  the  divine  nature  have  produced  their  fullest 
results  ? 

♦'The  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love,  joy,  peace,  long-suffcriu'r,  gentlenc's, 
goodness,  faith,  meeknesa,  temperance :  against  such  there  is  no  law  " 


220  THE  FBVIT  OF  THE  SFIBIT. 

That  is  to  say,  some  men  are  already  acting  so  much  higher  thain 
any  law  requires  them  to  act,  that  no  law  touches  them.  The  com- 
mon laws  by  which  men  regulate  morality  and  conduct  do  not  reach 
up  as  high  as  they  are  living  all  the  time.  They  are  doing  the  same 
things  that  the  law  enjoins,  better  and  nobler,  and  from  unspeakably 
liigher  reasons  than  it  requires  them  to.  Therefore,  there  is  no  law 
to  them. 

Here,  then,  is  the  ideal  of  a  perfect  manhood.  It  must  have 
these  marks.  It  must  be  characterized  by  these  qualities.  A  man 
may  be  resplendent  ;  he  may  dramatize  as  Shakespeare  ;  he  may 
paint  as  Raphael ;  he  may  carve  as  Michael  Angelo  ;  he  may  color  as 
Titian ;  he  may  build  as  Bramante  ;  he  may  subdue  the  material 
globe,  and  conquer  by  physical  forces  ;  but  these  thmgs  do  not  re- 
present manhood.  A  man  may  think  till  his  thoughts  shoot  as  far 
as  the  starlight  shoots  ;  a  man  may  speak  v/ith  an  eloquence  which 
is  transcendent  ;  a  man  may  be  endowed  with  all  conyeivable  intel- 
lectual endowments  ;  but  these  do  not  represent  manhood.  That 
which  distinguishes  the  true  man  is  not  the  capacity  to  command 
physical  substances.  It  is  not  the  power  to  analyze  and  use  things 
created  out  of  material.  It  is  not  any  of  the  lower  forms  of  power; 
nor  even  the  influence  of  mental  strength.  None  of  these  things 
constitute  the  truest  manhood.  It  is  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit,  man  being 
the  stalk  on  which  that  fruit  is  growing,  and  out  of  which  it  is  to 
be  developed. 

The  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love — love  universal  and  continuous  ; 
love  as  high  as  God,  and  as  deep  as  the  earth ;  love  first.  The  first- 
fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love. 

The  next  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  jo^/.  In  this  sorrowing  dis- 
jointed world,  full  of  cramps  and  colics,  full  of  wanderings  ancl 
mistakes,  full  of  stupendous  causes  of  mischief,  ancl  full  of  ex- 
quisite sufferings,  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  first,  love,  and  then  joy. 
Out  of  that  from  which  has  come  wailing,  out  of  that  from  which 
have  come  shouts  and  shrieks,  since  time  began,  God  meant 
should  come  sweet-voiced  joy,  clearer  than  any  silver  trumpet- 
sound.  Man  was  made  to  be  like  an  organ,  which  gives  forth 
•heavenly  music.  He  was  made  to  be  like  an  orb  of  light,  which 
.shines  upon  everything  around  about  it.  He  was  made  to  be  a  center 
of  love,  to  be  distinguished  by  love,  to  carry  it  everywhere  with 
•him,  and  always  to  be  known  by  it.  God  designed  that  we  should 
be  characterized,  not  so  much  by  intellection  nor  by  inventive  skill, 
as  by  love,  producing  goodness.  And  along  with  love  are  to  be,  as 
it  were,  triumphant  bells,  choral  bands.  There  is  to  be  love  ;  and 
then  there  is  to   be  joy.     There  is  to  be  joy  in  the  summer,  and 


TEE  FB  UIT  OF  THE  SPIRIT.  2  2 1 

there  is  to  be  joy  in  the  winter.  In  the  fields,  all  things  are  concord- 
ant. In  the  forest  there  is  universal  harmony.  The  cacophonous 
sounds  melt  away,  and  the  whole  woods  are  one  great  glorious 
organ.  All  the  jarring  noises  are  so  symphonious  that  there  is 
ipusic  in  the  air  and  on  the  earth.  And  when  God's  s]iirit  broods 
upon  a  man's  soul,  and  lifts  it  up  into  sympathy  with  himself,  the 
universe,  and  all  things  that  are  in  it,  are  to  that  soul  joyful.  Life 
and  death,  victory  and  defeat,  all  things  alike  become  tones  of  joy 
in  his  experience.  First  love,  and  then  joy,  are  final  fruits  of  the 
Spirit,  working  in  man. 

Then  comes  peace.  And  by  this  is  not  meant  stupor.  Peace  is 
born  of  excitement?,  always, — it  is  its  off*spring.  Disturbance  comes 
from  the  jarring  of  our  faculties  with  each  other,  not  being  in- 
sphered,  not  being  regulated,  not  being  brought  into  harmony.  But 
the  moment  that  you  bring  to  bear  on  the  soul  of  man  a  life-giving 
force  Avhieh  lifts  up  his  thoughts  and  feelings  into  a  higher  sphere, 
that  moment  clashing  and  discord  cease,  and  they  give  way  to  uni- 
son, so  that  the  mind  is  in  perfect  peace.  There  is  no  such  intense 
rapture  of  peace  as  exists  in  the  higher  forms  of  normal  and  swcct- 
breasted  excitement.  Peace — that  peace  which  passeth  all  under- 
standing— Avho  ever  analyzed  it?  Who  ever  felt  it  ?  "  The  fruit  of 
the  Spii-it" — what  God  meant  to  produce  by  man,  and  sometimes 
does  produce,  and  Avill  in  days  to  come  produce  in  yet  greater  abun- 
dance— "  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  ia  love,  joy,  peace.''  Peace  is  per- 
fectly consistent  with  joy  and  excitement,  and  surpasses  them  both. 

Another  part  of  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  long-si(j[jh-ing :  not 
spasms,  not  intensity  of  passion  and  anger  at  one  moment  and  good- 
nature at  another,  not  an  alternation  of  incongruous  emotions  ;  but 
a  steady,  patient,  On-going  power  to  meet  all  circumstances,  and 
to  meet  them  with  equanimity.  After  love,  joy  and  peac?,  comes 
long-suflTering — the  power  of  suffering  long,  either  for  others  or  for 
one's  self — the  power  of  suffering  wherever  one  may  be  called  to. 
stand.  Well,  when  a  man  is  full  of  this  power,  or  any  other  power, 
how  despotic  he  is  apt  to  be  !  It  never  does  to  make  a  man's  head  too 
big,  nor  to  fill  it  too  full  ;  because  men  beat  against  each  other  with 
their  heads.  There  never  was  a  man  with  a  big  brain,  who  was 
not  despotic  somewhere.  The  reason,  I  take  it,  why  so  few  men 
are  made  on  a  large  pattern,  is,  that  it  is  not  safe  to  trust  a  man  out 
in  the  world  with  large  brains.  There  is  great  economy,  therefore, 
in  that  direction  ! 

So  we  find  there  is  another  element  belonging  to  the  fruit  of  tho 
Spirit  which  operates  to  check  this  tendency  to  despotism — namely, 
gentleness.    But  this  is  not  weakness.    Weakness  cannot  help  itself  j 


222  THE  FBUIT  OF  TEE  S FIB  IT. 

whereas,  gentleness  has  the  power  to  tone  down  the  feelings  to 
sweetness  and  delicacy.  Where  there  is  great  strength,  full  of  sweet 
and  gentle  dealing,  there  is  gentleness  in  its  most  perfect  form.  And 
the  true  Christian  disposition  is  seen  when  a  man  is  clothed  with  all 
manner  of  vigor,  and  power,  and  knowledge,  and  intuition,  and 
carries  them  in  the  midst  of  an  offending,  sinful  world,  not  only  with 
the  utmost  long-suffering,  but  with  extreme  gentleness.  A  provi- 
dence to  the  world,  is  gentleness.  Like  a  peaceful  summer's  day,  like 
a  sweet  autumnal  night,  like  a  balmy,  nourishing  atmosphere,  is  that 
gentleness  which  belongs  to  the  ideal  Christian. 

Next  in  the  list  of  qualities  of  which  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  13 
composed,  is  goodness.  Well,  are  not  all  these  that  have  been 
enumerated  good  ?  Yes  ;  but  they  are  not  good  in  the  sense  that  is 
here  meant  to  be  conveyed. 

Did  you  never  see  a  person  whose  coming  into  a  room  was  like 
the  bringing  of  a  lamp  there  ?  Did  you  never  see  a  person  whose 
mere  presence  made  the  whole  room  shine,  as  it  were  ?  You  cannot 
analyze  nor  understand  the  power  which  such  a  person  exerts  on 
you.  It  is  not  intellectual.  It  is  a  mysterious  influence  which 
emanates  from  him,  so  to  speak.  There  are  persons  the  mention  of 
whose  names  awakens  in  you  feelings  which  nothing  else  does. 
Their  lives  are  so  radiant,  so  genial,  so  kind,  so  pleasure-bearing, 
that  you  instinctively  feel,  in  their  presence,  that  they  do  you  good. 
It  seems  to  you  wholesome  to  breathe  the  atmosphere  where  they 
are.  Their  influence  seems  to  you  like  the  perfume  of  flowers  in  a 
garden.  There  are  persons  who  are  so  genial,  so  gentle,  so  forth- 
putting  in  the  direction  of  purity  and  gentleness  and  love,  that  you 
have  not  the  slightest  doubt  of  their  being  Christians.  Have  you 
never  known  persons  of  whom  you  have  said,  "  I  do  not  want  any 
other  definition  of  a  Christian  than  that  which  I  see  in  them"  ?  He 
is  an  orphan  who,  having  lived  forty  years,  cannot  lay  his  finger  on 
any  one,  and  say,  "  He  gives  me  my  idea  of  goodness."  Blessed  be 
God,  I  know  a  great  many  ! 

Faith.  Ah,  yes !  How  far  are  modern  folks  away  from  this ! 
It  seems  to  be  thought  that  the  art  of  being  a  man  consists  in  not 
believing  anything,  and  that  the  art  of  living  in  the  world  consists 
in  not  trusting  anybody.  Men  seem  to  feel  that  the  peculiar  func- 
tion of  a  man  is  to  be  a  rolling  ball  of  ice,  so  round  that  it  will  not 
catch  anything,  and  so  cold  that  it  will  not  melt  anything.  And 
some  men  are  as  proud  of  their  skepticism  and  unbelief  as  the  devil 
is  of  his  deviltry.  But  true  manliness  consists  in  a  man's  being 
willing  and  desirous  to  believe  well  of  his  fellow  men.  A  true  man 
wants  to  believe  in  men,  and  in  what  they  say  and  do.     And  faith 


TEE  FB  UIT  OF  TEE  SPIBIT.  223 

is  that  trait  whicli,  though  it  knows  that  men  cannot  always  be 
trusted,  and  though  it  cannot  accept  all  things,  endures  all  things. 
It  rejoices,  not  in  iniquity,  but  in  the  truth.  It  Avants  to  find  truth 
everywhere.  It  takes  persons  and  things  to  be  as  they  seem,  until 
it  finds  out  that  they  are  not  what  they  seem.  It  is  one  of  the 
royalties  of  true  manhood.  A  man  who  has  not  this  divine  grace  to 
help  him,  limps. 

Meekness.  You  do  not  know  what  that  is,  do  you  ?  I  am 
afraid  you  would  not  if  I  were  to  describe  it  to  you.  Meekness  is 
one  of  the  rarest  of  virtues.  It  is  more  rare  than  pearls,  or  than 
opals,  or  than  diamonds.  The  gold  of  Ophir  is  not  to  be  mentioned 
by  the  side  of  it.  Meekness — the  ineffable  sweetness  of  all  the  fore- 
going qualities  mingled — that  is  like  the  sum  of  all  the  rays  of 
light  which  shine  upon  the  earth,  and  give  to  things  the  qualities 
which  they  possess  in  our  sight.  It  is  the  substance  of  the  facul- 
ties of  a  man  raised  up  .in  sweetness  and  power,  and  shining  out  as 
the  sun  shines  in  summer  days,  with  such  gentleness  as  to  nourish, 
and  not  to  singe,  the  tenderest  flowers. 

What  can  be  grander  or  nobler  than  a  great  soul  full  of  various 
power,  full  of.  various  imagination,  full  of  all  richness  of  faculty, 
mounting  high  in  its  own  joy,  full  of  outpouring  life,  full  of  deep 
and  inward  peace,  and  full  of  meekness — that  is  to  say,  full  of  that 
temperature  and  atmosphere  which  comes  from  the  combined  light 
of  the  higher  elements  of  the  soul  ? 

People  say  that  meekness  consists  in  not  getting  mad  when 
struck,  or  in  keeping  composed  in  the  midst  of  local  opposition. 
Yes,  that  is  one  phase  of  it.  But  you  might  as  well  bring  me  a  bit 
of  the  bark  of  an  oak  tree,  and  tell  me  that  that  was  an  oak  tree, 
as  to  tell  me  that  the  control  of  one's  temper  is  meekness.  It  is  a 
part  of  the  oak  tree ;  it  is  one  thing  connected  with  the  tree ;  but 
it  is  not  the  tree  itself.     So,  mildness  of  temper  is  not  meekness. 

Temperance.  By  that  is  meant  self-restraint.  Tliis  is  the  last 
quality  enumerated  in  the  inventory  of  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  in  a 
man. 

And  the  Apostle,  when  he  has  mentioned  them  all,  says,  "Against 
such  there  is  no  law."  There  are  no  such  in  the  world,  and  there- 
fore he  could  say  it  very  safely.  What  he  meant  was,  that  if  there 
were  any  such,  or  in  so  far  as  there  Avere  any  such,  law  ceased  to 
have  any  function.  Law  is  needed  up  to  a  certain  point;  but  if  a 
man  can  go  higher  than  that  point,  he  docs  not  need  Law. 
Wings  would  help  me  ;  but  angels  do  not  need  wings — though  paint- 
ers have  represented  them  as  having  wings.     An  angel,  according 


2 14:  THE  FB  UIT  OF  THE  SPIRIT. 

to  our  conception,  is  one  that  can  lift  itself  up  and  move  hither  and 
thither  by  its  own  spontaneity. 

In  proportion  as  men  have  these  thoughts,  in  proportion  as 
they  live  by  the  force  of  them,  they  do  not  need  the  wings, 
the  feet,  the  helps,  the  school-masters,  the  directors,  the  ward- 
ens, that  laws  are.  Laws  are  simply  aids  to  weak  folks,  to  tell  them 
where  to  go,  to  help  them  to  go,  and  to  make  them  remember  the 
next  time  if  they  do  not  go.  Laws  are  men's  servants ;  and  they 
are  servants  which  serve  them  in  that  Avay.  But  if  a  man  has  a 
direct  inspiration  of  God;  or  if  his  culture  has  gone  soliigh  that  he 
does  not  need  these  external  stimulants  ;  or  if  he  has  another  sphere 
of  influences  which  lead  him  to  the  same  things  from  a  higher  point 
of  view,  the  lower  ones  drop,  not  because  they  are  wrong,  but  be- 
cause the  man  is  doing  the  same  things  better  by  a  different  set  of 
instruments.  Therefore  it  is,  that  there  is  no  law  to  some  men.  A 
man  who  needs  a  law  is  yet  a  child. 

There  is  not  one  man  in  a  hundred  who  ever  does  live  by  the  laws 
of  the  land  that  he  is  in.  We  do  not  live  by  the  laws  of  our  land. 
You  do  not  know  one  quarter  of  the  laws  that  are  on  our  statute 
books.  A  virtuous  and  honest  man  does  not  need  to  know  what  the 
laws  ai'e.  The  greatest  proportion  of  men  live  and  die  without 
hearing  once  in  all  their  life  a  tenth  or  a  hundreth  part  of  the  laws 
that  pertain  to  good  conduct.  They  do  right  of  their  own  accord, 
and  therefore  the  law  has  no  force  on  them. 

So  it  is  in  i-espect  to  true  manly  living.  As  far  as  a  real,  upright 
man  goes,  he  goes  voluntarily.  He  does  from  spontaneity  and  from 
choice  what  men  lower  down  do  from  necessity,  or  from  fear  of 
punisliment. 

The  consequence  is,  that  men  live  toward  freedom  in  proportion 
as  they  live  toward  fidelity.  That  is  tlie  reason  why  men  who  wear 
the  cowl  and  sackcloth,  or  who  live  in  holes,  and  caves,  and  dens, 
are  not  living  pious  lives.  They  are  living  Avicked  lives.  Satan 
loves  asceticism.  It  is  the  devil's  spawn.  Joy  is  a  divine  element. 
It  tends  to  liberty.  It  is  one  of  the  qualities  of  manhood.  It  is 
one  of  the  signs  and  tokens  that  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  being  pro- 
duced in  a  man. 

There  is  more  power  in  this  idea  of  manhood  produced  by  the 
influence  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  because  it  comes  upon  the  heels  of 
Paul's  whole  argument  to  the  Galatian  Church  on  the  subject  of 
sacrifices  and  justifications,  wrought  out  through  the  ceremony  of 
law.  And  it  derives  very  much  more  force  from  the  view  that  it  is 
in  antithesis  to  the  whole  economy  of  High-churchism  and  the 
Pharisaic  law. 


TEE  FE  UIT  OF  TEE  SFIEIT.  223 

In  view  of  this  analysis  and  these  statements,  I  remark,  first, 
that  this  is  not  an  inventory  of  human  faculties,  at  all.  It  is  not 
psychologic,  any  more  than  it  is  inventorial  of  the  organs  of  a  man's 
body.  Human  nature,  whatever  it  is  made  up  of,  however  you 
choose  to  classify  and  define  it,  must  attain  these  fruits  of  the  Spirit, 
under  divine  guidance,  if  it  attains  them  at  all.  And  if  a  man's 
nature  is  fully  developed,  it  will  have  these  characteristic  signs, 
signets,  peculiarities. 

These  qualities  which  are  called  "the  fruit  of  the  Spirit,"  are 
wrought  out  in  the  average  man  as  well  as  in  the  higher  orders  of 
men.  That  is  to  say,  we  have  not  presented  before  us  an  ideal  of 
what  may  be  attained  by  certain  rare  spirits.  Unquestionably,  the 
larger  the  constitutional  riches  which  a  man  receives  at  birth,  the 
more  ardently  will  he  seek,  and  the  more  perfectly  will  he  realize, 
the  fruit  of  the  Spirit.  It  is  in  the  reunion  of  God  to  the  human 
soul  as  it  is  revealed  in  the  economy  of  Christianity  that  there  is 
power. 

God  meant  to  work  out  something  of  all  these  qualities  in  the 
average  man.  I  have  not  been  describing  heroic  traits  that  may 
appear  once  in  a  hundred  years,  or  in  one  of  a  million  men  or  wo- 
men. I  have  been  describing  qualities  which  are  the  birthright  of 
every  human  creature.  They  belong  to  the  average  man  in  time 
and  society.  The  evidence,  therefore,  of  our  relations  to  God  and 
of  our  sonship,  is  to  be  found,  not  in  any  external  work,  but  in  in- 
ternal quality. 

Now  we  are  prepared  to  look  upon  the  absurdity  of  church 
claims  that  are  founded  on  anything  else  besides  the  manhood  of  its 
members.  Fruit  is  the  one  certificate.  Our  Master  said,  "  By  their 
fruit  ye  shall  know  them."  He  said  it  of  individuals.  I  say  it  also 
of  collections  of  men.  He  said  it  of  living  spirits.  I  say  it  also  of 
organizations.  "  By  their  fruit  ye  shall  know  them."  High-sound- 
ing names  are  of  very  little  value.  Many  churches  are  like  nurse- 
rymen's catalogues.  They  contain  an  enormous  number  of  names, 
and  names  of  apparently  wonderful  significance ;  but  the  fruits 
which  they  represent  when  you  get  them,  and  taste  them,  may  be  of 
very  little  value.  Though  they  are  represented  to  be  the  ne  plus  ultra 
of  fruit,  they  may  turn  out  to  be  knurly  and  acerb  things  which 
you  will  not  have  in  your  collection.  Every  one  knows  what  ex- 
purgation the  nui-seryman's  catalogue  will  bear.  It  is  good  to  sell 
by,  but  bad  to  live  on. 

It  is  very  much  the  same  with  many  of  the  churches.  They  put 
forth  the  most  extraordinary  claims  to  authority,  and  priority,  and 
authenticity,  and  everything  else. 


226  TEE  FEUIT  OF  THE  SPIRIT, 

I  cave  not  what  claims  are  set  up,  I  say  that  we  have  the  power, 
and  have  had  it,  of  creating  a  manhood  which  surpasses  the  man- 
hood in  any  church.  A  church  is  a  mere  training-school  for  religion ; 
and  if  in  any  denomination  they  have  brought  up  a  style  of  char- 
acter that  is  higher,  a  style  of  manhood  that  is  nobler,  or  a  style  of 
citizenship  that  is  better,  than  that  which  has  been  produced  in  any 
other  denomination,  then  that  denomination  has  a  right  to  claim 
priority  over  others.  That  oi'chard  may  claim  priority  over  every 
other  which  sends  the  best  apples  to  market,  the  most  uniformly,  no 
matter  whether  they  have  a  name  or  not.  Apples  are  apples,  good 
apples  are  good  apples,  the  best  are  the  best,  and  no  thanks  to  any- 
body, scientific  or  unscientific.  The  center  of  the  universe  is  God  ; 
and  the  noblest  creature  which  he  has  created  on  this  globe  is  man  ; 
and  the  highest  thing  which  man  has  attained  is  manhood  ;  and  he 
that  is  the  best  developed  in  manhood  has  priority  everywhere 
and  in  everything.  And  any  church  that  has  the  power  of  genius 
in  it,  or  the  power  of  art  in  it,  or  the  power  of  eloquence  in  it,  or 
any  other  mark  of  superiority  in  it,  though  it  has  had  an  existence 
coextensive  with  the  globe,  and  though  it  has  a  lineage  running 
through  all  time,  if  it  turns  out  a  poor  article  of  manhood,  is  a 
sham — a  bogus  concern.  But  a  church  without  a  lineage,  as,  for 
instance,  the  Moravian  Church,  though  it  has  been  ever  so  obscure, 
and  though  its  pretentions  are  the  humblest,  if  it  has  achieved  the 
reputation  of  turning  out  the  noblest  and  the  best  men,  has  prioi-- 
ity  over  every  other  church.  And  therefore  we  should  be  careful 
how  we  claim  superiority  on  the  abstract  ground  that  there  are  links 
which  carry  us  back  to  the  times  of  the  apostles.  What  a  shame  it 
would  be  for  a  church  to  have  the  links  all  just  right,  and  to  turn  out 
the  poorest  members  !  What  a  shame  it  is  that  such  a  church  should 
not  turn  out  members  as  good  as  a  church  that  has  not  a  single  link, 
and  does  not  know  who  its  church-father  or  church-grandfather  is  ! 
A  church  that  has  great  radiant  natures  in  it ;  a  church  in  which 
there  are  men  who  are  willing  to  sacrifice  ■  themselves  for  others ;  a 
church  whose  members  grow  larger  and  larger  by  works  of  benevo- 
lence ;  a  church  filled  with  great  generous'  souls ;  a  church  like  the 
primitive  Methodist  church,  and  like  some  of  the  modern  Methodist 
churches;  a  church  that  has  in  its  membership  good  men,  and  makes 
good  men,  and  keeps  making  them  all  the  time,  and  many  of  them — 
what  else  do  you  want  but  that  ?  What'  more  authenticity  do  you 
want  than  it  has  ? 

I  take  a  knife,  and  see  that  the  name  "Russell"  is  stamped  on 
it ;  and  I  say,  "  That  is  a  good  knife ;  it  came  from  the  Greenfield 
Works ;  it  is  a  first-class  article."     But  suppose,  when  I  undertake 


TEE  FE UIT  OF  THE  8FIB1T.  Ill 

to  carve  a  joint  of  meat,  that  it  bends  like  lead,  does  the  name  "  Rus- 
sell "  on  it  make  it  any  better  ?  If  there  is  not  good  steel  in  tlu 
blade,  no  trade-mark  will  make  it  good  ;  and  if  the  steel  in  the  blade 
is  good,  it  is  no  better 'for  having  "Russell"  on  it.  He  might  feel 
better  if  his  name  was  on  it,  but  the  knife  would  not  be  better. 

And  so  it  is  in  regard  to  churches.  I  should  have  a  sort  of  artistic 
enjoyment  if  I  could  stand  in  a  church  where  I  thought  Paul 
had  preached.  I  went  into  a  church  in  Geneva  where  old  John 
Calvin  preached.  I  saw  the  chair  where  he  sat,  and  climbed  up  into 
the  pulpit  where  he  stood ;  and  I  came  nearer  being  a  Calvinist 
then  than  at  any  other  time  of  my  life.  I  felt  that  I  was  where  a 
great  nature  had  been  (for  he  was  a  great  nature ;  and  he  is  a 
greater  nature,  I  doubt  not,  now,  than  he  was  when  he  lived  on 
earth,  as  many  of  us  will  be  greater  natures  after  "we  have  died  than 
we  are  now.)  I  felt  a  profound  interest'  in  him.  I  venerated  his 
name.  And  I  should  have  been  more  moved  if  I  had  thought  that 
Paul  had  been  there.  It  would  have  made  my  loins  tingle  to  have 
sat  where  he  did.  But  that  is  purely  romanticism.  It  is  simply  the 
exercise  of  the  imagination.  It  has  its  pleasure,  and  that  is  right 
enough ;  but,  after  all,  it  does  not  amount  to  anything.  The  fact 
that  Paul  had  started  a  church,  and  that  it .  had  run  in  an  unbroken 
succession  from  his  time  to  our  day,  might  be  jjleasant  to  contem- 
plate; but  if  a  pretentious  modern  church,  that  turned  out  only 
poor  members,  should  trace  its  lineage  back  to  Paul,  making  its  ser- 
vice to  consist  in  exterior  worship,  and  not  in  heart-worsliip,  it  would 
not  be  any  better  for  having  come  down  from  the  church  whicli 
Paul  started.  I  should  be  sorry  for  the  apostle  if  I  thought  tliat  he 
started  a  church  like  some  of  those  which  we  see  nowadays. 

Some  churches  talk  of  being  descended  from  the  apostles.  It  is 
a  long  descent ;  nevertheless,  they  make  the  claim.  Some  have  slid 
down  on  outward  forms  and  ceremonies,  on  external  services ;  and 
others  on  dogmas.  It  is  the  system  that  some  have  slid  down  on. 
But  I  tell  you,  that  "  in  Jesus  Christ  neither  circumcision  availeth 
anything,  nor  uncircumcision  ;  but  faith  which  worketh  by  love."  It 
is  the  perfect  man,  it  is  the  spiritual  manhood,  that  is  the  great 
thing ;  and  the  church  which  has  the  aptitude  t©  produce  that  same, 
is  tlie  true  church,  if  it  stands  alone  ;  or,  if  there  are  a  hundred  such 
churches,  it  is  one  of  the  hundred  true  churches. 

I  not  only  hold  to  that,  but  I  hold  that  Avhcn  a  man  has,  in  any 
church,  under  God,  by  the  brooding  of  the  divine  Spirit,  found  his 
way  up  to  spiritual  manhood,  whether  he  come  through  the  instru- 
mentality of  music,  or  art,  or  Avhat  not,  he  is  a  genuine  child  of  God. 
When,  in  one  way  or  another,  any  man  has  risen  up  so  that  the  fruit 


228  THE  FB  UIT  OF  TEE  SPIBIT. 

of  the  Spirit  is  discernible  in  him,  he  is  a  Christian.  It  may  be  said, 
"  Oh,  he  is  nobody  but  a  miserable  heretic  !"  But,  ah  !  God  grant 
that  such  heretics  may  be  pi'olific.  If  a  man  is  large,  gentle,  pa- 
tient, long-suffering,  and.  full  of  love,  and  joy,  and  meekness,  and 
temperance,  I  do  not  care  where  or  under  what  system  he  is  bred. 
The  manhood  is  the  thing  ! 

If  you  ask  me  whether  there  is  not  a  better  adaptation  in  some 
methods  for  breeding  such  men  than  in  others,  I  say.  Yes,  there  is. 
I  think  it  is  more  likely  that  a  man  will  become  educated  ii'  he  goes 
to  the  common  school,  and  then  to  the  academy,  and  then  to  col- 
leoe,  than  if  he  does  not  go  to  any  institution  of  learning ;  but  if  the 
learned  blacksmith  hammers  out  his  learning  by  night  at  the  forge, 
if  with  persistent  reading  and  study  he  by  and  by  becomes  able  to 
speak  ten  languages,  he  is  educated,  though  he  never  went  to  school ; 
and  I  do  not  care  for  the  college  or  the  academy  so  far  as  he  is  con- 
cerned.    Now,  I  say  that  some  denominations  are  better  adapted 
than  others  to  educate  men  in  true  spiritual  manhood  (though  I 
would  not  undertake'  to  say  which  these  denominations  are) ;  but  I 
say  also  that  he  who,  by  the  divine  power,  and  under  God's  training 
influence,  has  been  brought  up-to  that  state  in  which  he  has  what  is 
called  "The  'fruit  of  the  Spirit,"  is  a  Christian  the  world  over,  no 
matter  if  he  be  in  the  midst  of  the  besotted  superstition  of  a  corrupt 
Christian  church ;  no  matter  if  he  be  outside  of  all  church  connec- 
tion ;    no  matter   if  he  be    among   the   Moors.      If  a  man  is   so 
developed  in  his  higher  nature  that  he  is  filled  with  love,  and  with 
the  other  elements  which  go  to  constitute  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit,  I 
am  bound  to  recognize  him  as  a  follower  of  Christ  wherever  I  find 
him.     And  who  am  I  that  I  should  say  that  God's  spirit  cannot 
work  except  through  the  forms  which  I  think  to  be  the  true  forms  ? 
Who  am  I  that  I  should  reject  and  deny  that  he  is  a  child  of  God 
whose  life  affords  evidence  that  he  has  the  divine  fruit  of  the  Spirit  ? 
Let  me  not  be  understood  either  as  speaking  adversely  of  any 
denomination,  or  church,  or  organization,  or  as  denying  the  right 
of  any  denomination  to  its  own  belief.     I  hold  to  the  right  of  the 
Roman  Church  to  believe  in  their  services,  if  they  can,  in  their  dog- 
mas, if  they  can,  and  in  their  government,  if  they  can.     I  hold  to 
the  right  of  the  Episcopal  Church  to  believe  in  their  forms  of  wor- 
ship all   through,  if  they  prefer  them.     I  hold  to  the  right  of  the 
3Iethodist  Church  to  believe  in  a  modified  form  of  Episcopacy.     I 
hold  to  the  right  of  the  Quakers  to  believe  in  their  quiet  and  unpre- 
tentious mode  of  worshiping  God.     I   believe  in  the  right  of  the 
Cono-regational  and  Presbyterian  churches  to  believe,  in  their  pecu- 
liar forms  of  worship.     And  I  say  to  these  great  families,  I  have  no 


TEE  FBUIT  OF  THE  SPIRIT.  229 

word  of  offense  to  utter  against  you,  except  this  :  You  are  not  the 
people,  and  wisdom  shall  not  die  with  you.  You  are  not  God's  only 
children.  You  have  a  right  to  worship  as  you  please ;  but  you  have 
no  right  to  lift  your  imperious  authority  over  me,  and  say,  "  We 
are  absolutely  the  only  true  church,  and  you  must  come  to  us  or  be 
damned."  No  church"  has  a  right  to  say  that.  Every  church  has  a 
right  to  open  its  doors,  and  say,  to  those  that  prefer  it,  "  Come  in 
here,  and  we  will  do  you  good ;"  but  the  moment  that  you  undertake 
to  arrogate  superiority  over  others,  and  the  right  to  tell  them  what 
they  must  do,  that  moment  you  become  despotic.  And  it  is  the 
right  and  privilege  and  duty  of  every  man  to  strike  down  despot, 
ism.  You  have  a  right  to  investigate  for  yourself,  and  take  that 
which  you  think  is  best  for  you ;  and  if  it  seems  to  you  to  be  to 
your  advantage  to  go  elsewhere  than  here ;  if  you  feel  that  your 
needs  will  be  more  fully  met  in  some  other  church,  I  will  not  say 
that  you  are  abandoning  the  church  of  your  fathers.  The  church 
of  your  fathers  is  the  church  of  love,  of  joy,  of  peace,  of  gentle- 
ness, of  faith,  of  meekness,  of  goodness,  and  of  temperance.  That 
is  the  church  which  all  good  men  are  interested  in,  and  are  seeking- 
to  establish  throughout  the  earth. 

One  other  point  I  wish  to  make  on  this  subject.     I  wish  to  say  a 
word  to  those  who  have  been  in  the  habit  of  looking  upon  relio-ion 
as  machinery.     I  do  not  mean  infidels.      There  is  a  stigma  attached 
to  the  term  infidelity,  and  I  never  use  it  when  I  can  help*  it.     But 
there  are  many  men  who  do  not  believe  in  religion,  because  they 
think  it  is  made  up  of  machinery  ;  and  it  does  not  touch  them  any- 
where.   They  say  that  when  they  think  of  it,  they  think  of  it  for  the 
most  part  as  machinery.    They  say  that  when  the  subject  of  religion 
is  broached  in  their  presence,  up  start  before  them  five  hundred 
churches,  with  their  various  systems  and  external  appliances.      But 
these  are  not  religion,  any  more  than  a  wine-press  is  wine.    Suppose 
a  person  should  invite  you  to  supper,  and  should  have  nothing  to 
entertain  you  with  but  tubs,  and  other  apparatus  used  in  makino- 
wine  ?     The  machinery  might  be  very  good  for  making  wine,  but  it 
would  not  be  wine.  And  the  outward  forms  and  ceremonies  and  ap- 
pliances by  which  organizations  are  maintained  are  not  Christianity, 
though  they  may  be  important  aids  in  disseminating  Christianity. 
Books  and  institutions  are  not  education,  though  they  are  indis25en- 
sable  means  of  education.  Schools  are  not  educated  men,  though  men 
are   educated   in   schools,   and   though   they   are   the   best   means 
of  spreading  intelligence.     And  churches  are  simply  instruments  by 
which  God,  in  the  economy  of  his  providence,  is  seeking  to  lift  men 
into  that  high  state  of  which  I  have  been  speaking.     Dogmas  are 


230  THE  FRUIT  OF  THE  SFIEIT. 

not  religion.  And  when  I  ask  you,  "  Do  you  believe  in  religion  ?" 
I  do  not  mean  to  ask  you  whether  you  believe  in  creeds,  and 
ordinances,  and  church  organizations.  When  I  want  to  know 
whether  a  man  believes  in  religion  or  not,  I  do  not  ask,  "  Do  you 
believe  in  Sunday,  and  in  ministers,  and  in  the  Bible  ?"  For  a  man 
may  believe  in  all  those  things,  and  not  believe  in  religion.  And  a 
man  might  not  believe  in  any  of  them,  and  yet  believe  in  religion. 
If  I  were  going  to  question  you  to  ascertain  whether  you  were  a 
Christian  or  not,  I  would  say,  "  Do  you,  sir,  believe  in  love,  as  the 
transcendent  element  of  manhood  ?"  Where  is  the  man  who  would 
say  No  to  that  ?  Where,  in  the  whole  round  of  creation,  could  be 
found  a  man  who,  if  the  question  were  put  to  him,  "  Do  you  believe 
in  the  validity  and  authority  and  divinity  of  love  ?"  would  not  say, 
"I  believe"?  That '  is  the  first  question  in  the  catechism.  The 
second  is,  "  Do  you  believe  in  joy,  supernal,  ineifable,  divine,  bred 
in  the  soul  of  man,  and  in  the  highest  realm  of  the  soul  ?  Do  you 
believe  that  all  the  faculties  of  man,  like  the  pipes  of  an  organ, 
conspire  in  ringing  out  sweet  symphonies  ?"  If  the  question  were 
asked,  "Do  you  believe  in  joy?"  where  is  the  man  that  would 
not  say,  "  I  believe"  ?  "  Do  you  believe  in  peace  ?"  "  I  believe." 
"  Do  you  believe  in  long-suffering  ?"  "  I  believe."  "  Do  you 
believe  in  gentleness  ?"  "  I  believe."  "  Do  you  believe  in 
goodness  ?"  "  I  believe."  "  Do  you  believe  in  faith  ?"  "  I  be- 
lieve." '*'Do  you  believe  in  meekness  and  temperance  ?"  *'  I  believe." 
Answer  me,  hungry  heart — you  that  have  wandered  from  church  to 
church,  and  have  not  been  fed ;  you  that  have  tried  pleasure  and 
aspiration  and  ambition  without  being  satisfied,  and  have  become 
wearied  and  discouraged ;  you  that  have  listened  to  discourse  on 
discourse,  and  enigma  on  enigma,  and  had  spectacular  views  which 
purported  to  be  religion,  and  have  fallen  oflEj  wearily  saying,  "  Ah, 
there  is  no  religion  in  these  things  !"-t— is  there  no  religion  ?  Do  not 
you  believe  in  religion  ?  If  you  were  to  see  a  man  filled  with  the 
fruit  of  the  Spirit,  would  not  you  believe  in  that  man  ?  "  Yes," 
vou  say,  "but  there  is  no  such  man."  But  is  not  that  an  ambition 
which  every  man  may  most  Avorthily  set  before  him,  and  press 
toward  with  all  the  power  that  is  in  him  ?  Is  not  that  worth  living 
for  ?  And  if  men  come  together,  and  say,  "  We  will  bear  Avith  each 
other,  and  will  uphold  each  other,  and  together  we  will  press  toward 
that  high  conception  of  manhood,"  is  not  that  a  worthy  reason  for 
coming  together?  Is  there  anything  in  pleasure,  or  busincs.^,  or 
citizenship  which  is  comparable  in  dignity  and  worth  to  coming  to- 
gether earnestly  bent  on  having  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  as  it  is  here 
depicted  ? 


TEB  FB  UIT  OF  TEE  SPIRIT.  231 

Men  and  brethren,  there  is  such  a  thing  as  ideal  living.  There 
is  such  a  thing  as  religion.  This  is  a  religion  which  we  have  here  de- 
clared by  the  apostle  to  be  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit.  We  are  not 
therefore,  following  a  cunningly  devised  fable.  We  are  following  a 
reality.  We  are  running  along  the  line  of  our  best  faculties.  We 
are  looking  at  ideals  by  that  which  is  noblest  in  us.  We  are  work- 
ing away  from  that  which  is  gross,  and  vulgar,  and  animal,  and  sen- 
suous, and  which  perishes  in  the  grave,  and  are  working  toward  the 
ineffable,  and  that  which  is  full  of  illumination.  And  I  call  every 
young  man  who  has  his  character  to  make,  I  call  every  maiden  Avho 
has  her  life  before  her,  I  call  every  wanderer  whose  soul  is  tried  in 
one  way  and  another  in  vain  attempts  to  find  that  which  shall  satis- 
fy its  craving — I  call  them  all  to  the  simplicity  of  the  truth  as  it  is 
in  Christ  Jesus,  who  manifested  himself  to  men  in  order  to  show 
them  what  they  might  be,  and  to  help  them  to  become  like  him. 

I  spread  before  you  this  reality  of  love,  and  joy,  and  peace,  and 
ong-suffering,  and  gentleness,  and  goodness,  and  meekness,  and  tem- 
perance, and  say,  "  This  is  what  you  are  to  be  and  to  do.  And  you  can 
help  each  other  to  be  that  and  to  do  that.  Take  hold  of  hands.  Avail 
yourselves  of  what  advantage  there  may  be  in  social  power.  If  you 
are  wanderers  and  discouraged,  join  one  with  another  that  you  may 
inspire  each  other  with  hope,  and  find  rest."  This  is  the  whole  econo- 
my of  religion.  It  is  the  whole  philosophy  of  the  church.  The 
church  is  nothing  more  than  a  social  arrangement  by  which  men  en- 
deavor to  give  each  other  a  higher  ideal  of  life,  living  together. 

God  grant  that  the  scales  may  fall  from  some  of  your  eyes,  and 
that  you  may  see  that  the  church  does  not  consist  in  the  machine- 
ries by  which  Christian  men  are  inspired  and  helped,  but  in  the 
hearts  of  men.  The  kingdom  of  God  is  within  you.  It  is  love  and 
joy  and  peace.     It  is  righteousness. 


232  THE  FBUIT  OF  THE  SFIBIT. 

PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON.* 

Our  heavenly  Father,  we  commend  to  thy  care  and  benediction  those  lit- 
tle children.  Hast  thou  not  been  present?  As  their  loving  parents  brought 
them  unto  thee  for  thy  blessing,  wouldst  thou  not  have  taken  them  in  thine 
arms,  and  laid  thine  hands  upon  them,  and  blessed  them,  wert  thou  again  on 
earth  as  of  old  ?  And  may  we  not  believe  that  in  thy  divine  Spirit,  and  in 
the  spirit  of  ineffable  love,  thou  hast  been  present,  and  that  thou  hast  blessed 
them  with  thoughts  of  mercy  and  of  love  ?  "We  commend  them  to  thy  provi- 
dence, which  springs  from  wisdom,  and  is  guided  by  love.  We  pray  that 
their  health  and  their  life  may  be  precious  in  thy  sight ;  that  they  may  grow 
up  to  man's  estate;  that  they  may  be  strong  in  all  that  is  good ;  that  they 
may  be  a  comfort  and  a  joy  unto  the  hearts  of  their  parents. 

And  we  pray,  O  Lord,  that  thou  wilt  grant  unto  these  parents  wisdom  to 
discern  the  right  in  everything  which  relates  to  their  children.  May  they 
remember  that  they  have  inwardly  entered  into  covenant  with  thee  in  their 
behalf ;  that  they  have  promised  that  these  children  shall  be  brought  up,  not 
for  vanity  and  pride  and  selfishness,  but  in  the  spirit  of  love,  and  purity,  and 
goodness,  for  all  that  is  right,  and  all  that  is  noble,  both  here  and  hereafter. 
And  may  they  have  grace  to  remember  what  they  promise  for  their  ciiildren, 
and  what  they  propose  for  them  now.  And  as  in  these  hours  of  calmness,  so 
when  storms  and  troubles  come,  may  they  be  able  to  hold  their  course  in  the 
«vork  of  their  lives.    May  they  be  as  God's  messengers  to  these  little  pilgiims. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  remember  all  the  children  that  have  been  offered 
up  here  in  love  to  thee.  We  pray  that  our  sympathies  may  more  and  more 
embrace  them. 

And  while  we  are  remembering  them,  may  we  remember  those  who  are 
not  among  us.  We  pray  for  all  that  are  dwelling  in  tbeir  households  in 
obscurity,  in  trouble,  in  feebleness,  and  who  are  yet  steadfast,  and  still  press- 
ing forward,  unable  to  go  back,  and  unable,  many  times,  to  see  their  way  to 
go  forward. 

Grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  the  light  of  hope  may  dwell  with  every  one, 
and  that  those  who  are  called  to  great  patience  and  great  self-sacrifice  for 
the  sake  of  their  children,  may  have  before  them  evermore  the  example  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  suffered  for  them,  and  who  Las  been  patient  and 
gentle  with  them.  We  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  that  we  may  learn  from 
the  duties  of  the  household  more  and  more  of  God,  and  of  the  great  govern- 
ment of  divine  love,  and  of  the  mystery  of  self-sacrifice,  and  of  the  wonder 
of  living  for  others.  We  pray  that  we  may  be  able  thus  to  go  forth  out  of  the 
sanctuary  of  our  homes,  and  to  carry  the  spirit  of  love  and  wisdom  and  purity 
and  goodness  all  around  about  the  ways  in  which  we  are  called  to  go. 

Grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  thy  blessing  may  rest  upon  all  who  are  gathered 
together  this  morning.  For  thou  knowest  every  heart,  shut  up  to  every 
other  one,  and  unknown  even  to  its  own  self.  Naked  and  open  is  every  one 
before  Him  with  whom  we  have  to  do.  And  thou  art  merciful  and  most 
helpful. 

Grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  those  who  are  in  darkness  may  see  light  dawn- 
ing upon  them.  May  those  who  are  in  joy  feel  their  hearts  turning  in  grati- 
tude and  thanksgiving  to  God  for  his  mercies  to  them.  May  those  who  are 
waiting  patiently  for  God's  deliverance  not  lose  faith,  but  still  more  earn- 
estly trust  in  the  Lord  and  wait,  and  wait  patiently  unto  the  end.  And  we 
pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  to  those  who  aie  working  in  the  mid-day  sun,  and 
bearing  the  burden  and  heat,  strength  according  to  their  day.    May  they 

*  Immediately  following  the  baptism  of  children. 


THE  FE  UIT  OF  THE  SPIRIT.  Si  3  3 

not  be  weary  in  well-doing.  May  they  not  faint.  May  they  persevere  to 
the  end. 

Deliver  us,  we  pray  thee,  f  rom  sordidness ;  from  worldly-minded  n  ess;  from 
the  passions  of  men.  We  do  not  know  God ;  and  we  do  not  know  the  way  of 
holiness.  More  and  more  may  we  think  from  that  which  is  nearest  to  thee  in 
ourselves.  More  and  more  may  our  purposes  spring  from  that  part  of  our 
life  which  is  nearest  to  God's  life. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  enable  us  to  bring  forth  the  fruits  of  righteous- 
ness; and  may  we  stand  before  men  more  and  more  an  encouragement  to 
every  one  who  seeks  to  lay  aside  evil  habits,  to  overcome  besetting  sins,  and 
to  maintain  the  fight  of  faith. 

Grant,  we  beseech  of  thee,  to  every  one  present  this  morning  who  is  a 
stranger,  who  comes  up  hither  unknowing  and  unknown,  that  he  may  find 
a  Father's  house,  and  an  hour  of  welcome  here.  May  the  spirits  of  all  be 
ouched  with  common  faith,  with  common  succor,  with  common  sympathy, 
and  with  common  hope  in  Jesus  Christ.  We  beseech  of  thee,  that  thou  wilt 
bless  all  the  weary  and  the  heavy  laden ;  all  the  sinful  and  the  sorrowful ; 
all  that  are  overborne  and  discouraged. 

Grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  all  who  wait  in  secret  places  may  find  God 
their  Comforter  to-day.  Give  strength  to  all  that  are  weak.  Give  light 
along  every  path  where  darkness  is.  Be  near  us  in  all  the  duties  of  our  lives 
everywhere.  Make  us  valiant  for  the  truth.  Make  us  strong  for  things  that 
are  right.  Bless  all  those,  we  pray  thee,  who  seek  to  raise  the  whole  earth  in 
which  they  live  to  purity  of  morals,  and  who  seek  to  correct  all  abuses. 

Grant,  we  beseech  of  thee,  that  the  spirit  of  Christ,  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  a 
cleansing  fire,  may  pervade  our  minds.  And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  lift  this 
great  people  up  to  a  higher  sphere,  to  nobler  aspirations,  and  to  better  duties 
better  performed.  And  may  that  kingdom  in  which  dwells  righteousness 
speedily  come,  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord  shine  in  justice,  in  humanity,  in 
sympathy  of  man  with  man,  all  around  the  world.  And  may  the  day. 
speedily  come,  which  has  lingered  so  long,  and  been  predicted  so  long  in 
vision— the  day  when  wars  shall  cease;  the  day  when  men  shall  love  one 
another;  the  day  when  nations  shall  help  nations,  and  vex  them  no  more; 
the  day  when  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  shall  become  the  kingdoms  of  our 
Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  And  to  thy  name,  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit, 
shall  be  praises  evermore.    Amen. 


PRAYER  AFTER  THE  SERMON". 

Lord  God,  how  many  there  are  to  whom  thou  art  going  on  the  sea-  in  the 
night,  and  who  are  afraid  because  they  think  thee  to  be  a  spirit?  And  as 
thou  didst  say  to  thy  servants  of  old.  Be  not  afraid ;  it  is  I;  so  say  to  all. 
Be  not  afraid;  it  is  1.  Lift  us  up  out  ot  oar  vulgarity;  out  of  our  carnal 
moods ;  out  of  all  unworthy  ideas ;  out  of  all  hardness  of  heart  and  cruelty 
of  disposition;  out  of  all  living  to  the  flesh;  out  of  the  sacritlce  of  the 
Spirit.  Oh,  open  the  heavenly  gate!  Oh,  let  down  the  celestial  vision!  By  a 
divine  light,  quickeninus  that  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness  which 
will  not  let  us  be;  which  shall  torment  us  until  we  are  fed  by  the  good 
spirit  of  God.  And  grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  there  may  be  many  who  will 
to-day,  ask  whether  they  are  true  to  themselves,  and  are  living,  as  they 
should  live,  for  the  manhood  which  belongs  to  them.  Cleanse  their 
understandings,  and  inspire  their  hearts.    May  they  be  filled  with  light  and 


234  THE  FRUIT  OF  THE  SPIRIT. 

joy  and  comfort.  May  thy  name  be  glorified  forevermore  in  all  thy 
churches,  and  among  all  thy  people.  And  bring  us  at  last  where  nil  con- 
tentions and  detections  shall  cease,  and  where  as  children  of  light  we  shall 
move  in  perfect  harmony  and  peace  forever  and  iorever.    Amen. 


XIII. 

Measurements  of  Manhood. 


INVOCATION. 

Our  Father,  again,  as  ever  before,  breathe  upon  us  the  blessings  which 
we  need — even  that  spirit  of  enlightenment,  and  of  faith,  and  of  love  by 
which  we  shall  know  that  we  are  thy  children,  and  rise  into  communion  with 
thee.  Help  us  to  lay  aside  all  those  influences  which  depress  us,  and  which 
give  strength  to  our  senses.  Give  us  those  inspirations  by  which  we  may  dis- 
cern the  invisible  and  the  spiritual.  And  may  the  services  of  the  sanctuary, 
and  all  the  offerings  of  our  hearts,  our  thoughts,  and  our  fellowship,  to-day, 
be  acceptable  to  thee.  And  look  lovingly  upon  us,  that  we  may  have  joy 
and  rejoicing  in  thee.  We  ask  it  for  Christ's  sake.  Amen.  ' 
13. 


MEASUREMENTS  OF  MANHOOD. 


"  For  I  Bay  I  thought  the  grace  given  unto  me,  to  every  man  that  is 
among  you,  not  to  think  of  himself  more  highly  than  he  ought  to  think  t 
but  to  think  soberly,  according  as  God  hath  dealt  to  every  man  the  measure 
of  faith."— Rom.  XII.,  3. 


When  persons  are  under  the  influence  of  wine,  nothing  is  more 
frequent  than  wild  and  boisterous  boasting.  They  often  entertain 
the  most  extravagant  notions  of  themselves,  of  which  they  are 
heartily  ashamed  when  they  come  to  their  sober  reason.  And  it  is 
this  figure,  latent,  that  the  apostle  employs.  Think  not  extrava- 
gantly well  of  yourselves.  Form  an  estimate  that  is  reasonable,  and 
in  accordance  with  fact. 

"  I  say  to  every  man  that  is  among  you,  not  to  think  of  himself  more 
highly  than  he  ought  to  think,  but  to  think  soberly  [reasonably],  accord- 
ing as  God  hath  dealt  to  every  man  the  measure  of  faith. 

These  words  assume,  or  imply,  that  men  should  have  some  opin- 
ion of  their  own  character  and  worth  ;  that  they  are  liable  to  ex- 
travagant and  faulty  estimates  ;  that  they  should  exercise  sobriety 
of  reason  in  determining  their  real  position  ;  and  that  the  true  ele- 
ments whose  measures  determine  manhood  are  moral,  and  not 
physical  nor  social. 

Men  ought  not  to  be  ignorant  of  their  own  characters  and  wants. 
It  is  impossible  not  to  have  some  opinion  of  one's  self.  Even  if  vou 
should  seek,  as  some  have  attempted,  as  a  matter  of  conscientious 
religious  duty,  to  avoid  all  knowledge  or  thought  about  yourself  it 
will  come  in. 

What  if  one  should  attempt  to  be  ignorant  in  respect  to  the  con- 
dition of  his  body,  and  cultivate  self-control  to  such  a  deforce  that 
he  should  not  know  whether  he  was  awake  or  asleep,  whether  he 
was  hungry  or  satisfied,  whether  he  was  tall  or  short,  whether  he 
was  heavy  or  light,  active  or  slow  ?  It  would  strike  you  as  im- 
practicable, not  to  say  absurd,  for  a  man  to  affect  ignorance  respect- 
ing his  physical  qualities.    But  it  is  just  as  impossible  for  one  not  to 


236  MBA8UBEMENTS  OF  MANHOOD. 

know  something  about  his  internal  structure,  his  disposition,  his 
temper — whether  he  be  cheerful,  or  whether  he  be  morose  ;  whether 
he  be  quick,  or  whether  he  be  dull.  It  is  not  possible  for  a  man  to 
escape  some  idea  of  himself.  And  the  only  question  Is,  whether  it 
shall  be  an  idea  shaped  according  to  good  rules  and  through  right 
influences,  or  whether  it  shall  be  casually  left  to  chance  feeling.  To 
assume  ignorance  of  these  things  is  only  to  make  sure  of  falsifica- 
tion. 

There  be  those  Avho  say  that  the  best  way  to  think  of  yourself, 
is  not  to  think  of  all  ;  and  there  is  a  sense  in  Avhich  this  is  true.  It 
is  true  that  men  may  think  too  much  of  themselves,  in  attempting 
to  estimate  where  they  are,  and  what  they  are.  It  is  true,  also,  that 
one  may  follow  the  line  of  meditation  and  practically  subject  his  ac- 
tions to  such  minute  analysis  and  scrutiny  as  very  much  to  take 
away  impulse  and  momentum  from  his  life.  In  other  words,  there  are 
dangers  on  the  side  of  self-examination  and  self-estimation.  But 
these  dangers  do  not  forbid  our  forming  a  correct  judgment  of  our- 
selves, nor  take  away  the  wisdom  of  attempting  it. 

Truth  is  not  to  be  set  aside  or  violated  for  the  sake  of  a  self- 
imposed  and  pretentious  humility.  For  a  man  to  say  of  himself  all 
that  is  bad,  indiscriminately  ;  or,  to  say  generically  that  he  is  less 
than  the  least,  that  he  is  the  lowest,  and  that  he  is  altogether  un- 
worthy— this  is  to  violate  the  truth :  this  is  to  set  at  naught  con- 
science in  one  of  its  most  important  applications.  There  is  a  duty 
of  self-knowledge  ;  for,  otherwise,  how  shall  one  know  whether  he 
be  growing  or  shrinking  ?  How  shall  one  know  whether  he  be  fol- 
lowing the  commands  of  his  Master,  or  simply  the  impulses  of  his 
own  selfish  nature ;  how  shall  there  be  aspiration ;  how  shall  there 
be  any  form  of  genuine  spiritual  culture,  if  there  be  not  some  idea 
of  what  one  is,  of  what  he  is  doing,  of  what  he  has  done,  and  of  what 
he  must  do  ? 

Is  it  needful  for  the  husbandman  to  know  the  extent  of  his  terri- 
tory ;  is  it  needful  for  him  to  know  its  capability  of  producing  har- 
vests ;  is  it  needful  for  him  to  know  Avhich  part  is  rich,  and  which 
part  is  poor  ;  is  it  needful  for  him  to  know  what  has  been  the  rota- 
tion of  his  crops — must  a  man  know  all  these  things  for  outward 
husbandry,  and  is  spiritual  husbandry  to  be  founded  in  pretentious 
ignorance,  as  if  one's  merit  were  in  proportion  as  he  covered  him- 
self with  depreciation  or  over-laudation  ?  You  are  not  called  to 
think  more  highly  of  yourself  than  you  ought  to  think  ;  you  are  not 
called  to  think  of  yourself  as  more  insignificant  and  more  unworthy 
than  you  really  are ;  you  are  commanded  to  think  soberly^  reason- 
ably, in  conformity  with  facts  and  things  as  they  exist. 


MEASUBEMENTS  OF  MANHOOD.  237 

Until  men  lay  aside  partial  and  false  measurements,  they  can 
never  attain  to  a  rational  estimate  of  themselves,  and,  therefore, 
cannot  know  what  most  they  need,  nor  how  best  to  apply  the  various 
instruments  of  instruction  or  education. 

It  is  true  that  we  should  not  carry  self-consciousness  with  us 
every  hour.  It  is  time  that  we  only  weaken  ourselves  when  we  at- 
tempt to  keep  our  hand  upon  the  pulse  of  the  heart  or  of  the  life. 
Yet,  one  may  come  to  a  general  estimate  that  shall  be  the  foundation 
of  all  the  processes  of  moral  culture  which  he  is  to  follow  out.  ^ 

The  measurements  of  feeling  are  to  be  avoided  ;  and  yet  those 
are,  in  many  instances,  the  only  estimates  which  men  make.  If  one 
be  constitutionally  proud  ;  if  one  have  great  conceit,  without  any 
known  reason  in  facts,  he  thinks  highly  of  himself.  There  be  men 
who,  without  any  remarkable  qualities  whatever,  from  the  crown  of 
their  head  to  the  sole  of  their  foot  feel  as  if  they  were  princes  ;  and 
they  walk  sovereignly  ;  and  tliey  are  evidently  at  the  utmost  peace 
with  themselves  ;  and  they  think  a  hundred  times  better  of  thcm- 
Belves  than  anybody  else  thinks  of  them.  It  is  true  that  oftentimes 
men  of  great  parts  have  great  vanity.  It  is  .said  that  greatness  of 
mind  is  inconsistent  with  vanity  ;  but  vanity  is  an  organic  feeling ; 
and  the  proportion  in  which  it  exists  does  not  depend  upon  whether 
it  be  accompanied  with  large  intellectual  gifts.  Many  men  of 
eminent  genius  have  been  men  of  preeminent  vanity.  But  there  can 
be  no  question  as  to  the  moral  condition  of  a  vain  man.  One 
who  over-estimates  himself  by  the  inshinmg  of  his  own  conceit  or 
vanity,  surely  needs  to  be  exhorted  to  adopt  some  other  method,  to 
resort  to  some  other  process,  to  take  some  other  way  of  estimating 
himself.  He  needs  to  be  taught,  in  forming  his  estimation  of  himself, 
to  measure  those  things  which  go  to  make  up  his  daily  life,  and  to 
apply  to  them  some  other  measure  than  that  inordinate  self-com- 
placency, that  smiling,  smirking  self-conceit  by  which  he  has  been 
wont  to  judge  of  himself. 

The  estimate  of  those  qualities  which  suit  our  circle,  and  which 
reflect,  therefore,  from  it  upon  ourselves,  is  a  false  way  of  measuring. 
But  many  men  have  no  other  conception  of  character  except  this 
entirely  pragmatical  and  empirical  one — that  if  they  conform 
generally  to  the  social  requirements  Avhere  they  are,  and  please 
others,  and  are  pleased  themselves,  that  indicates  sufficient  goodness. 
They  reach  little  higher  than  that.  And,  therefore,  if  they  find 
themselves  praised,  that  answers  pretty  much  the  aspiration  which 
they  have  for  excellence. 

How  utterly  apart  this  is  from  true  measuring  :  how  one  may 
go  through  life  without  the  least  conception  of  the  proportions  or 


238  MB  AS  UE.EMENTS  OF  UA  NJIOOD. 

tlie  values  of  the  qualities  in  them  that  are  the  strongest,  and  how 
little  one  may  know  of  himself,  Avho  simply  lives  to  glide  down  the 
stream  of  social  amenities,  smiling  and  being  smiled  upon,  I  need  not 
Btop  to  tell  you.  This  is  not  having  any  knowledge  of  yourselves, 
"but  is  simply  knowing  when  you  are  pleased,  without  any  regard  to 
moral  condition.  It  was  as  jDOSsible  for  the  Egyptian  before  Christ, 
and  it  is  as  possible  for  the  savage  to-day,  as  it  is  to  a  rational  and 
educated  Christian  man. 

The  measurement  of  ourselves  simply  in  executive  functions,  al- 
though as  a  part  of  the  general  knowledge  of  ourselves  it  is  allowa- 
ble and  desirable,  yet  furnishes  a  very  imperfect  knowledge  of  what 
we  really  are.  No  man  thinks  of  himself  as  he  ouglit  to  think 
who  thinks  of  himself  simply  with  reference  to  liis  effect-producing 
power,  and  in  the  lower  range  of  his  life.  Men  tend  to  measure 
themselves  by  their  sensuous  faculties ;  by  their  physical  life ;  by 
their  organizing  skill ;  by  their  power  of  achieving  results  ;  by  vari- 
ous effects.  These  elements  indicate  what  man's  force  is  ;  they  indi- 
cate what  his  expertness  is  in  the  lower  ranges  of  life ;  but  they  cer- 
tainly leave  the  larger  part  of  the  province  of  the  human  mind  un- 
surveyed  and  unknown.  Men  may  have  the  most  exaggerated  ideas 
of  their  excellence  on  the  one  side,  and  the  most  inadequate  concep- 
tions of  their  weakness  or  wickedness  on  the  other  side,  who  simply 
think  of  themselves  as  factors  in  society — as  business  men — as  pro- 
fessional men  ;  as  laboring  men  ;  as  men  building  up  a  fortune  ;  as 
men  securing  to  themselves  all  the  great  immunities  and  blessings 
which  belong  to  this  lower  state. 

Skill  is  certainly  a  matter  which  a  man  ought  not  to  be  ashamed 
of,  and  which  a  man  may  sometimes  well  be  proud  of.  He  who  has 
long  been  educating  himself,  and  denying  himself,  and  applying 
himself  assiduously,  and  has  at  last  taught  his  hand  to  think,  so  that 
it  becomes  a  universal  tool,  is  deserving  of  not  a  little  praise.  It  is 
right  that  a  man  should  feel  that  in  skill  there  is  something  of 
which  he  need  not  be  ashamed.  And  a  man  who  has  taught  him- 
Belf  how  to  organize  business,  how  to  achieve  success,  how  to  suffer, 
how  to  endure,  how  to  see  things  before  they  are  visible ;  a  man 
who  lives  not  in  the  present,  but  in  years  yet  to  come,  and  by  com- 
binations and  continuations  carries  on  the  work  from  day  to  day, 
and  from  month  to  month,  until  he  secures  that  which  he  foresaAV— - 
such  a  man  has  not  a  little  with  which  he  may  be  pleased :  but  judg- 
ing simply  from  this  view  is  not  enough. 

It  is  not  wrong  for  a  man  to  know  whetlier  he  is  a  good  lawyer 
or  not.  It  is  not  necessary  to  humility  that  a  man  who  stands 
second  to  none  at  the  bar  should  say  of  himself,  "  I  always  feel  my- 


MEASVBEMENT8  OF  MANHOOD.  239 

self  to  Tse  a  very  poor  lawyer !"  You  do  not,  and  you  ought  not  to ; 
and  if  you  have  never  compared  yourself  with  your  fellow-men,  and 
thought  what  your  relative  position  is,  you  have  never  thought 
enough  about  it.  A  man  has  a  right,  and  it  is  his  duty,  to  think  of 
himself  as  he  is.  Here  is  a  fact,  as  much  as  any  other  fact  in  the 
world ;  his  faculties  are  all  facts  ;  and  there  are  moral  reasons  why 
a  man  should  have  a  sober  estimate  of  .what  he  is  and  has  been ;  of 
what  his  social  relations  are ;  and  of  what  his  relations  are  in  busi- 
ness and  professional  life. 

These  estimates  are  not  incompatible  with  true  humility.  In- 
deed, they  are  indispensable  to  a  true  humility.  A  man  may  know 
how  he  is  in  comparison  with  his  fellow-men  and*  yet  be  perfectly 
humble. 

If  a  man  find  that  on  the  whole  he  thinks  faster  and  more  accu- 
rately than  his  partner ;  if  a  man  find  that  he  has  a  more  delicate 
sense  of  truth  than  his  partner,  is  he  bound  by  humility  to  pretend 
that  he  does  not  know  it  ?  If  in  the  execution  of  business  one  man 
sees  himself  more  successful  than  another,  is  it  necessary  to  hu- 
mility or  a  proper  appreciation  of  himself  that  he  should  pretend 
that  he  does  not  see  it  ?  If  God  has  given  a  man  great  power,  must 
he  make  believe  that  he  does  not  carry  power  ?  If  a  man  has  the 
gift  of  speech,  must  he  seem  ignorant  of  it  ?  Must  Homer,  for  the 
sake  of  humility,  say,  "  I  cannot  sing  "  ?  Or  must  Milton,  in  order 
to  be  modest,  believe  that  he  did  not  speak  in  immortal  numbers  ? 
Or  must  Shakespeare,  if  he  would  be  manly,  suppose  himself  to  be 
but  a  common  man  ?  If  one  can  organize  forces  in  society ;  if  he 
is  a  leader  among  men ;  if  he  finds  himself  producing  effects  on 
every  side,  there  is  a  reason  why  he  should  not  think  of  hiraselt 
7nore  highly  than  he  ought  to  think,  but  there  is  no  reason  why  he 
should  not  think  of  himself  as  highly  as  he  ought  to  think,  and 
should  not  know  Avhat  facts  are. 

I  would,  therefore,  clear  away  the  false  impression  which  exists, 
that  it  is  wrong  for  a  man  to  think  oi  himself  as  he  is.  We  never 
laugh  at  or'  ridicule  any  one  who  says,  "  I  am  six  feet  high"  ;  but  if 
a  man  should  say,  "  I  am  comely,"  everyone  would  call  it  conceit. 
"VVe  never  smile  at  a  man  who  says  of  himself,  "  I  can  lift  three  hun- 
dred pounds"  ;  but  if  a  man  should  say,  "  I  am  far  more  skillful  and 
a  better  executant  than  that  man,"  we  should  think  that  he  trenched 
on  the  ground  of  conceit.  In  other  words,  we  allow  a  man  to  esti- 
mate all  his  physical  qualities ;  but  the  moment  he  begins  to  form 
an  estimate  of  his  intellectual  and  moral  status,  we  begin  to  think 
he  is  tending  in  the  direction  of  conceit — especially  if  it  be  a  judg- 
ment that  is  formed  by  a  comparison  of  himself  with  tliose  who  are 


240  MEASUBEMENTS  OF  MANHOOD. 

around  about  him.  As  if  a  man  were  bound  to  think  that  another 
man  is  superior  to  him,  who  is  not !  Let  every  man  think  of  him- 
self as  he  ought  to  think. 

When  each  is  commanded  to  estimate  others  better  than  himself, 
it  is  not  meant  that  we  should  estimate  other  men  as  better  than  we 
are,  in  the  sense  that  they  are  taller ;  because  they  may  not  be  taller : 
or  quicker;  because  they  may  not  be  quicker:  or  more  skillful; 
because  they  may  not  be  more  skillful.  It  is  not  meant  that  we 
should  estimate  them  as  braver  than  we  are ;  because  they  may  not 
be  half  as  brave.  It  is  not  meant  that  we  are  to  think  of  others 
more  highly  than  ourselves  as  if  they  possessed  qualities  better  than 
ours.  Another  man  may  be  stupid,  and  I  may  know  that  I  am  not. 
He  may  be  timid,  and  I  may  know  that  I  am  courageous. 

You  cannot  falsify  truth.  You  cannot  put  a  man  on  the  ground 
of  examining  what  he  is  in  any  way  that  will  imply  that  he  does  not 
look  facts  squarely  in  the  face,  and  form  an  estimate  from  them.  A 
man  should  plant  himself  on  wholesome  moral  ground,  and  recog- 
nize the  truth  everywhere.  To  be  sure,  you  may  think  too  much 
about  yourself  and  miss  the  truth  by  conceit ;  but  that  does  not 
alter  the  fact  that  truth  is  to  be  the  foundation  on  which  we  are  to 
to  build  an  estimate  of  ourselves. 

But  that  is  not  the  most  important  side  on  which  we  can  measure 
ourselves,  Avhere  we  compare  ourselves  with  our  fellow-men.  Such 
a  comparison  is  permissible,  and  is  not  without  its  benefit,  if  it  is 
wisely  instituted  and  regulated  ;  but  it  certainly  is  not  the  highest 
estimate,  as  we  shall  see  before  we  close. 

Men  make  a  false  estimate  in  judging  of  themselves,  also,  by 
selecting  the  best  things  in  the  best  moods,  and  slurring  over  the 
rest.  There  ai-e  very  few  men  of  any  sensibility,  I  think,  who  are 
willing  to  make  what  might  be  called  a  morbid  analysis  of  them- 
selves. Men  have  bilious  reactions,  and  profound  melancholy,  and 
sometimes  feel  that  they  are  worse  than  the  dogs ;  or  that  they  are 
not  fit  to  live;  but  the  feeling  is  generally  very  coarse  and  very 
physical.  There  are  few  men  who  have  the  nerve,  and  courage 
and  conscientiousness  to  sit  down  and  take  a  thread  of  fault  in  them- 
selves and  follow  it  out,  and  admit  to  themselves  exactly  the  line  of 
their  selfishness,  running  it  right  straight  through  to  where  it  leads 
them — to  meanness.  There  are  very  few  men  who  deal  with  their 
faults  as  a  surgeon  does  with  a  nerve,  when  he  takes  his  scalpel  and 
cuts  down  to  it,  and  then  follows  it  to  the  very  uttermost.  Very 
few  men  will  admit  to  themselves,  "  I  am  deceitful :  I  am  tricky." 
There  are  few  who  will  enter  upon  the  morbid  anatomy,  as  it  Avere, 
of  themselves — their  passions  and  appetites — their  various  occult 
tendencies,  which  are  known  to  God  and  themselves  only. 


MEASUREMENTS  OF  MANROOB.  241 

No  man  can  form  an  estimate  of  himself  who  is  not  bold  enough 
to  look  his  faults  in  the  face,  and  look  long  enough  to  take  their 
pictures  in  his  mind,  and  form  some  estimate  of  them.  But  these 
are  the  parts  that  we  love  to  slur  over.  We  are  aj^t  to  leave  out  of 
the  account  all  qualities  of  value  which  arc  wanting  in  us,  when  we 
make  an  estimate  of  ourselves.  We  select,  when  we  undertake  to 
form  an  idea  of  our  character,  those  excellencies  which  are  apparent ; 
and  we  usually  exaggerate  them.  We  leave  the  impression  on  our 
minds  that  these  things  are  stronger  in  us,  and  are  better  in  their 
origin  and  relation,  than  they  really  are.  And  Ave  are  inclined  to 
omit  co-ordinate  qualities.  If  a  man  be  strong  and  have  all  the 
virtues  Avhich  belong  to  strength,  there  are  a  thousand  inflections  of 
feeling  which  ought  to  go  with  his  strength,  but  these  are  not 
taken  account  of.  He  may  be  strong,  but  not  gentle.  He  does 
not  think  of  gentleness,  but  he  thinks  of  his  strength.  A  man  has 
a  blunt  lip,  and  a  sort -of  irascible  and  plunging  conscience,  and  he 
says,  "I  am  coming  to  a  stand  ;"  and  he  dashes  forward,  and  states 
his  own  view,  and  his  neighbor's  view,  and  is  harsh  in  everything  he 
says.  The  blow  of  his  tongue  is  like  the  stroke  of  a  trip-hammer  on 
an  anvil.  And  he  calls  it  boldness;  he  calls  it  honesty j  he  calls  it 
fidelity  to  the  truth.  But  the  apostle  says, 
"  Speaking  the  truth  in  love." 

Where  are  the  co-ordinate  qualities  ?  Where  is  meekness  ? 
Where  is  gentleness  ?  Where  is  love  ?  Where  is  forbearance  ? 
Where  is  sweetness  ?  The  man  makes  no  account  of  these  things, 
The  virtues  which  we  have  not,  we  do  not  usually  require  of  our- 
Belves.  We  do  not  think  much  about  them.  We  hustle  up  an  idea 
of  character,  and  say,  "I  am  not  as  bad  as  other  jDCople  ;  I  am  a 
good  deal  better  than  some  ;  I  am  pretty  good,  on  ^he  whole."  We 
take  a  few  tinsel  beads,  a  few  showy  excellencies,  and  these  we  call 
our  character.  Is  that  thinking  soberly  of  ourselves  ?  Ought  not 
a  man  to  make  an  inventory  of  all  the  forces  that  are  in  him,  and  of 
all  that  should  be  there,  before  he  makes  an  estimate  of  himself  to 
himself? 

We  leave  out  of  view,  too,  the  great  evil  tendencies,  the  appe- 
tites and  passions,  which  exist  in  us.  A  few  qualities  we  usually 
employ,  and  from  them  we  reckon  Avhat  we  are.  Our  characters 
are  dressed  for  inspection,  as  apples  are  when  they  are  sent  to  mar- 
ket. There  are  all  sorts  in  the  middle  of  the  barrel,  and  the  best 
ones  are  put  on  the  top  to  face  oflf  with.  As  deft  gardeners  prepare 
their  stuff"  for  selling,  so  men  prepare  themselves  for  inspection.  A 
few  face-qualities  are  made  prominent,  and  all  that  is  beneath  them 
is  hidden.     They  impose  upon  themselves,  making  themselves  think 


242  MEASUREMENTS  OF  MANHOOD. 

more  highly  of  themselves  than  they  ought  to  think,  by  leaving 
faults  out  of  consideration  ;  and  by  not  counting  themselves  respon- 
sible for  qualities  which  they  ought  to  possess,  but  which  are  not  in 
exercise  in  them.  They  deceive  themselves,  not  only  by  arranging 
their  good  qualities  in  the  most  favorable  manner,  but  by  heighten- 
ing their  color  a  little.  You  h^ve  seen  apple-women  take  a  cloth 
and  rub  their  apples  until  every  one  of  them  shone,  and  put  them  in 
the  most  tempting  aspects  ?  And  do  not  men  do  the  same  thing 
with  their  good  qualities  ?  If  there  is  a  speck,  that  is  turned  round 
inside ;  but  you  will  find  it  out  after  you  have  bought  the  apple,  and 
cut  it.  Everything  is  made  to  put  on  its  very  best  face.  I  do  not 
say  that  a  man  should  make  everything  put  on  its  worst  face.  I  say 
simply  this :  Let  every  man  think  of  himself  as  he  ought  to  think. 
Let  every  man  think  of  himself  soberly — honestly,  practically. 

A  man  may  think  himself  to  be  far  better  than  he  is,  by  judi- 
cious selection.  I  have  seen  the  face  of  my  grounds  and  garden, 
when  the  season  was  far  along,  so  dreary,  and  so  empty  of  flowers, 
that  everything  seemed  to  have  gone  under ;  and  yet,  by  a  skillful 
garnering  from  this  nook  and  that,  I  could  bring  into  the  house  a 
handful  of  flowers  that  would  lead  to  the  supposition  that  the  gar- 
den was  in  its  summer  glory.  A  man  may  select  good  qualities  in 
himself , and  make  up  a  bouquet  of  his  fancy  which  shall  make  it  seem 
as  though  it  was  a  paradise  there,  by  a  judicious  picking  and  arrang- 
ing. 

But  the  great  mistake  which  men  make,  is  that  of  selecting  only 
the  secondary  elements  of  their  charactei-,  and  leaving  out  the  pri- 
mary ones.  A  symmetrical  whole  is  very  seldom  thought  of  in  self- 
estimation.  Having  a  body,  having  the  organization  which  belongs  to 
that  body,  having  social  relationships,  having  intellectual  forces,  and 
having  a  higher  moral  and  spiritual  force,  few  men  ever  sit  down  to 
estimate  themselves  as  a  whole,  in  this  way,  or  in  their  relations  to 
time.  As  creators  of  property,  as  members  of  society,  they  measure 
themselves,  and  sometimes  with  approximate  truth ;  but  such  a 
measurement  is  only  partial.  No  man  knows  how  to  measure  him- 
self, even  in  these  lower  departments  of  life,  who  has  failed  to  un- 
derstand where  true  manhood  is — where  the  diameter  is — where  the 
equator  is.     And  this  is  what  the  apostle  gives  us : 

"  I  say  to  every  man  that  is  amoDg  you,  not  to  think  of  bimself  more 
highly  than  he  ought  to  think,  but  to  think  soberly,  according  as  God  hath 
dealt  to  every  man  the  measure  of  faWi." 

Ah!  it  is  there,  where  the  spiritual  elements  dwell  in  man  ;  it  is 
there,  at  that  point  where  he  understands  and  touches  the  divine, 
that  you  must  measure  him.     It  is  there  that  a  man  is  great,  if  he  is 


MEASUREMENTS  OF  MANHOOD.  243 

great  at  all.  If  he  is  great  there,  he  Is  great  everywhere  else  ;  but, 
if  he  is  small  there,  he  is  small  everywhere  else.  You  must  meas- 
ure, not  your  animal-hood,  but  your  manhood.  You  must  measure, 
not  where  you  touch  the  ground,  but  whero  you  touch  the  sky. 
You  must  measure,  not  the  root,  but  the  blossom ;  not  the  leaf,  but 
the  fruit.  It  is  that  which  goes  to  constitute  true  manhood,  in  dis- 
tinction from  animal-hood.  It  is  there  that  the  apostle  says  we 
must  measure  ourselves,  and  estimate  ourselves — in  the  region  of 
faith. 

One  should  consider  the  strength,  the  fruitfulness,  and  the  pre- 
dominance in  the  higher  manhood,  of  these  moral  qualities.  One 
should  consider  his  relations  to  his  fellow-men  in  the  light  of  these 
higher  feelings.  It  is  not  enough  that  he  be  physically  or  mentally 
stronger  than  they.  He  must  recognize  the  fact  that  he  is  woven 
into  a  fabric  to  which  they  belong,  and  that  there  are  ten  thousand 
influences  which  act  upon  them  and  him  in  common.  He  must  re- 
member that  his  helpfulness,  his  patience,  his  benefaction,  his  hap- 
piness-making power,  are  all  to  be  exercised  in  reference  to  them  as 
well  as  to  himself. 

Now,  if  we  can  overreach  our  fellow-men ;  if  we  can  think  fast- 
er, and  further,  and  in  wider  circuits  than  they  can ;  if  by  our  supe- 
rior skill  we  can  snatch  from  them  that  which  they  would  fain  have 
secured  to  themselves;  if  we  can  use  them  for  our  own  purposes; 
if  we  can  express,  as  it  were,  the  work  of  their  life  into  our  wine- 
cup,  we  think  ourselves  strong  and  great  men.  We  glorify  our- 
selves because  we  have  such  power  over  others.  But  the  feeling  is 
malign.  It  is  Satanic.  It  is  a  manifestation  of  selfishness  in  its 
worst  form.  Making  pain  is  the  conception  of  demoniac  spirits. 
Selfishness  at  the  expense  of  others'  happiness  is  demonism,  no  mat- 
ter where  you  find  it — Avhether  on  the  throne,  or  among  men.  He 
who  seeks  his  own  good  at  the  expense  of  others'  good,  is  demoniac. 
And  that  only  is  divine  which  seeks  others'  happiness,  if  need  be 
at  one's  own  expense.  No  man  can  telj,  what  his  measure  is,  who 
does  not  measure  himself  with  respect  to  the  power  of  his  religious 
feeling,  and  his  spiritual  nature,  and  the  operation  of  these  qualities 
through  his  social  intercourse,  and  through  all  his  active  life. 

If  one  carries  himself  as  a  fox,  or  as  a  wolf;  if  one  is  successful 
as  a  lion,  or  as  an  eagle,  is  he  man  ?  He  who  renders  to  himself  an 
account  of  those  attainments  which  he  has  achieved  through  cun- 
ning and  through  force — has  he  measured  manhood  ?  And  has  he, 
or  can  he  have,  a  just  estimate  of  what  he  is  ?  He  who  has  sounded 
somewhat  the  depths  of  the  upper  nature ;  he  who  knows  what  con- 
science is,  and  what  faith  is,  and  what  love  is,  and  what  benevolence 


244  MEASUREMENTS  OF  MANHOOD. 

is,  and  what  patience  and  gentleness  and  forbearance  and  long-suf- 
fering kindness  are — he  knows  something  about  himself.  And  every- 
body is  ignorant  of  himself  who  has  not  an  estimate  which  is  founded 
upon  the  gauge  of  these  qualities. 

Nor  should  we  leave  out  a  relation  Avbich  is  transcendent  over 
all  these — the  relation  of  man  to  the  world  which  is  to  come.  For 
a  man  may  be  very  strong  as  regards  this  life,  and  very  weak  as 
regards  the  other  life.  And  as  we  are  here  to  prepare  for  the  lile 
to  come,  he  misses  his  manhood,  and  the  significance  of  it,  who  only 
lives  for  time,  and  is  unfit  to  live  for  the  spiritual  and  eternal. 

It  is  painful  to  think  how  much  the  grave  strains  out,  of  that 
which  men  do  and  earn  in  this  life.  It  is  the  work  of  men's  hands 
that  they  are  proud  of,  mostly.  They  have  organized  and  built — 
and  that  is  well ;  but  no  man  shall  take  his  house  with  him  out  of 
this  world.  They  have  supplied  their  dwellings  with  things  com- 
fortable to  every  sense — and  there  is  no  harm  in  that ;  but  no  man 
shall  take  book  or  picture  or  furniture  with  liim  when  he  dies.  They 
have  heaped  up  treasures  around  about  them — and  in  the  economy 
of  God  that  is  a  method  of  civilization ;  but  none  of  these  things 
shall  go  beyond  the  grave.  No  man  shall  go  through  that  portal 
taking  with  him  houses,  or  lands,  or  raiment,  or  money,  or  honors,  or 
earthly  force  of  any  kind.  You  shall  take  through  the  shadowy 
door  nothing  but  that  which  is  spiritual ;  and  how  much  of  that 
have  you  to  take  through?  If  you  Avere  to  efface  from  many  men  that 
which  makes  them  great  in  influence  in  the  day  in  which  they  live; 
if  you  were  to  take  from  them  all  which  depends  purely  upon  phys- 
ical qualities,  and  all  that  relates  to  the  malign  passions ;  if  you  were 
to  send  them  out  of  life  with  no  capital  except  truth,  and  honesty, 
and  equity,  and  generosity,  and  affection,  then  millionaires  might 
come  out  bankrupts  and  paupers.  For  the  grave  lets  nothing  through 
but  that  which  is  ineffixble — that  which  is  of  a  high  moral  texture. 
And  only  he  can  measure  himself  aright  who  knows  how  much  of 
himself  he  can  carry  through  and  beyond. 

When  a  man  comes  to  die,  then  all  that  there  is  in  him  of  man- 
hood goes  with  him,  and  all  the  rest  is  baggage.  The  things  which 
he  has  been  thinking  of,  and  for  which  he  has  given  the  time  of  life, 
and  almost  his  life  itself,  are  often  no  more  than  the  chaff"  of  the 
wheat  after  the  wheat  is  ripe  and  gone. 

In  the  light  of  such  thoughts  as  these,  my  brethren,  we  may  see 
what  is  the  deep  import  of  the  declaration  of  our  Saviour,  that  the 
last  shall  be  first,  and  the  first  last.  If  the  true  measure  of  men  is 
the  measure  of  their  moral  nature,  how  many  there  are  who  over- 
estimate themselves,  and  are  over-estimated  by  their  fellows  in  this 


MEASVBEMENTS  OF  MANHOOD.  245 

world  !  How  many  there  are  who  stand  very  high,  who  are  hon- 
ored among  men,  and  who  carry  pleasure  to  an  extreme,  but  of 
whom  there  shall  be  nothing  when  they  wake  up  in  the  other  life  I 
There  are  men  who  despise  people  that  are  below  them,  or  who  do 
not  even  know  that  there  are  such  people,  but  from  beneath  whom, 
in  the  great  day,  shall  rise  men  without  name,  or  note,  or  appre- 
ciable power,  who  shall  stand  transcendently  glorious,  while  the 
light  that  on  earth  was  bright  shall  pale,  or  go  out  in  ignominious 
darkness. 

It  is  not  enough  that  you  stand  high  as  a  man  of  force,  or  as  a 
man  of  skill.  It  is  essential  that  you  stand  high  as  a  man  of  God. 
It  is  that  of  God  which  is  in  you  that  is  immortal.  All  the  rest  per- 
ishes. And  when  men  whose  names  are  sounded  on  the  Exchange, 
men  who  are  known  all  through  the  world,  men  of  military  prowess, 
men  who  are  preeminent  in  literary  genius,  but  who  are  destitute  of 
godliness,  or  soul-qualities,  shall  emerge  and  go  before  God,  then 
what  a  reversal  of  positions  there  will  be  I  Crowns  will  go  down, 
and  paupers  will  go  up. 

He  is  rich  who  will  be  rich  in  the  other  world.  He  is  strong 
whom  death  cannot  weaken.  He  is  weak  who  must  leave  on  this 
side  of  the  grave,  when  he  dies,  everything  which  his  whole  life  has 
been  earning  here. 

Let  every  man,  then,  measure  himself,  not  according  to  his  venal 
vanity,  and  not  by  the  weakness  of  conceit.  Let  no  man  measure 
himself  simply  by  the  opinions  of  other  men.  Let  no  man  measure 
himself  merely  by  his  physical  qualities — by  his  skill,  and  his  execu- 
tive energy.  Let  no  man  measure  himself  by  the  things  which  he 
has  heaped  up  around  about  himself — his  houses  and  lands  and 
property,  which,  though  well  enough  in  their  way,  are  not  himselfl 
Let  no  man  measure  himself  by  the  secular  gifts  of  genius,  which 
play  across  the  surface  of  this  life,  but  have  no  gleam  of  immortality. 
Let  no  man  measure  himself  as  except  under  the  eye  of  God.  Let 
one  think  of  himself  as  an  heir  of  immortality,  let  him  believe  him- 
self to  be  a  son  of  God ;  and  then  let  him  apply  to  himself  the  meas- 
ures which  belong  to  this  transcendent  conception  of  life  and  of 
character.  Measuring  yourselves  thus,  you  will  not  think  of  your- 
selves more  highly  than  you  ought  to. 

This  is  true  humility.  It  is  humility  to  think,  not  that  you  are 
less  than  somebody  else,  but  that  you  are  less  than  you  ought  to  be. 
That  is  humility  when  you  exalt  the  conception  of  spiritual  and 
divine  excellences,  and  estimate  only  at  their  real  value  the  things 
which  belong  to  the  lower  nature.  That  is  humility  where  you  feel 
that  the  sum  of  your  character  is  small,  and  that  in  the  sight  of  God 


246  MEASUREMENTS  OF  MANHOOD. 

it  is  oftentimes  detestable.  It  is  this  examining  of  yourselves  in  the 
light  of  the  future  state  that  constitutes  a  true  humility  before  God. 
And  out  of  that  humility  should  spring,  not  discouragoTnent,  nor 
any  self-loathing,  except  in  a  figurative  sense,  but  aspiration,  an 
earnest  desire  for  culture,  longing  for  growth,  and  sti'ife  after  the 
higher  nature. 

When  a  man  feels  that  he  has  completed  his  growth  in  life,  he 
has  come  to  an  end ;  and  is  dead.  There  be  many  men  who  arc 
dead,  and  do  not  know  it.  He  who  walks  without  a  sovereign  sense 
of  the  need  of  cleansing,  of  inspiration,  of  reconstruction,  of  growth, 
from  day  to  day,  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  summer  of  God's  soul 
mingling  with  the  winter  of  his,  is  living  without  life.  In  propor- 
tion as  we  are  tending  toward  God,  and  growing  into  his  likeness, 
we  are  alike  ;  and  he  Avho  has  no  such  growth  and  no  such  tendency, 
is  dead  in  trespasses  and  in  sins. 

'*  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  Let  not  the  wise  man  glory  in  his  wisdom,  neither 
let  the  mighty  man  glory  in  bis  might,  let  not  the  rich  man  glory  in  his 
riches;  but  let  him  that  glorieth  glory  in  this,  that  he  nnderstandeth  and 
knoweth  me,  that  1  am  the  Lord  which  exercise  loving-kindness,  judgment 
and  righteousness  in  the  earth;  for  in  these  things  I  delight,  saith  the 
Lord." 


MEASUREMENTS  OF  MANHOOD.  247 

PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

Our  Father,  wilt  thou  breathe  into  us  the  spirit  of  prayer.  Behold  our 
hearts' great  waut.  How  little  do  we  understand  of  ourselves!  How  little 
do  we  understand  the  soui'ce  of  thought  and  feeling !  Thou,  by  thy  Spirit, 
dost  draw  us  near  to  thee.  And  it  is  thy  Spirit  that  breathes  in  our  hearts. 
There  is  aspiration  in  us  because  thou  hast  incited  us  to  aspire. 

We  pray,  this  morning,  that  thou  wilt  interpret  our  wants  to  us,  that  we 
may  not  draw  near  to  thee  and  ask  for  things  which  we  do  not  need,  or 
which  we  understand  imperfectly.  We  know  that  it  is  in  accordance  with 
thy  will,  that  we  should  be  like  thee ;  that  all  malign  dispositions  should  be 
overcome ;  that  evil  should  be  taken  out  of  the  way ;  that  our  hearts  should 
rise  into  the  true  benevolence  of  God;  and  that  we  should  be  like  him. 

Grant  us  strong  desires,  this  day,  for  that  perfectness  which  is  in  Christ 
Jesus.  Grant  that  we  may,  this  day,  have  a  consciousness  of  how  low  we 
are;  how  unformed ;  how  imperfect  in  all  excellences ;  how  needy.  May  we 
have,  also,  a  sense  of  the  supply  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus.  And  may  his  grace 
be  sufficient  for  us,  so  that  we  may,  from  time  to  time,  in  looking  upon  the 
work  which  is  unfolding  or  completing  itself,  be  led  to  say,  with  all  our 
hearts.  By  the  grace  of  God  we  are  what  we  are. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  help  us  to  overcome  all  the  difficulties  which 
belong  to  the  places  where  thou  hast  appointed  us.  Some,  thou  hast  called 
to  bear  heavy  burdens.  May  they  be  strengthened  to  endure.  May  all  of 
us  know  how  to  interpret  the  providence  of  God  in  the  position  to  which  we 
have  been  called,  and  seek  to  know  the  will  of  God,  and  to  fulfill  that  will. 
May  those  who  are  called  to  suffer,  suffer  bravely.  May  those  who  are  called 
to  joy,  not  be  rendered  selfish  by  their  enjoyment.  May  those  whom  thou 
hast  raised  to  places  of  influence  and  power  administer  their  trust  as  stew- 
ards of  God,  dealing  not  with  their  own,  but  with  that  which  is  thine,  and 
which  thou  hast  committed  to  their  keeping. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  unto  those  to  whom  thou  hast  given  great 
force  of  life  a  disposition  to  use  it  as  thou  didst  thine  own  self.  And  we 
pray  that  if  thou  art  shutting  any  up,  if  thou  art  narrowing  the  bounds 
within  which  they  are  confined,  they  may  be  patient,  and  stand.  Even 
when  they  have  done  all,  may  they  be  willing  to  stand. 

Grant  thy  blessing  to  rest  upon  all  those  who  are  in  trouble ;  all  who 
come  from  places  of  sorrow ;  all  who  have  come  up  to  this  sanctuary,  if  per- 
adventure  God  may  give  them  light  and  comfort.  Breathe  a  welcome  upon 
them.  Draw  them  near  to  thee  with  a  sen?e  of  divine  companionship.  Help 
all  needy  souls.  We  beseech  of  thee  to  find  them,  and  that  they  may  find  a 
hospitable  welcome  in  their  Father's  house. 

Grant  thy  blessing  to  rest  on  all  those  who  are  aspiring  through  youth 
to  manhood,  for  whom  thou  hast  spread  out  the  path  of  life.  May  they  not 
be  led  away  by  delusions,  after  so  many  weary  experiments,  Gi-ant,  we  pray 
thee,  that  none  of  them  may  be  deluded  and  led  astray  by  evil.  May  all  of 
them  walk  firmly,  and  safely,  and  surely,  aad  joyfully  in  the  path  of  virtue 
and  of  piety. 

And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  disabuse  all  of  thinking  that  selfishness  and 
self-seeking  can  build  them  up  in  happiness.  May  every  one  feel  that  it  is  for 
him  to  diffuse  joy.  and  to  send  abroad  light,  and  so  to  be  happy  by  the 
measure  of  that  which  he  creates  in  others. 

We  pray,  O  Lord  our  God,  that  all  may  feel  themselves  to  be  only 
strangers  and  pilgrims  here.  But  may  they  not  on  that  account  look  out 
gloomily  upon  the  world.  May  they  rather  rejoice  that,  fair  as  it  is,  there  is 
a  fairer;  that  sweet  as  are  the  flowers  that  blossom  by  them,  there  are 


248  MEASUREMENTS  OF  MANHOOD. 

sweeter  flowers  beyond;  tbat  good  as  the  fruit  is  which  they  pluck  by  the 
wayside,  there  is  better  fruit  for  the  life  to  come;  that  dear  as  are  the  affec- 
tions and  friendships  which  we  experience  here,  there  are  dearer  affections 
and  friendships  there.  May  they  loolc  forward  to  that  glorified  state  where 
love  shall  put  on  all  its  glory,  and  be  restricted  no  more.  Give  us  a  sense 
of  the  mutableness  of  things  here ;  and  may  we  look  forward  to  that  other 
and  better  life  more  and  more  as  the  days  draw  on.  And  so  may  we  have  for 
the  discharge  of  earthly  duties  the  influences  which  come  from  the  heavenly 
land.  And  may  they  make  us  more  grateful,  more  faithful,  more  earnest, 
more  Godlike. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  bless  all  those  who  are  poor;  all  those  who  are 
needy ;  all  those  who  are  surprised  by  this  inclement  season.  Open  the  hand 
and  heart  of  thy  servants  everywhere  to  relieve  the  wants  of  those  who  are 
in  distress.  We  pray  that  those  who  are  in  circumstances  of  misfortune,  and 
bearing  heavy  burdens,  and  are  overthrown,  may  find  sympathy  and  succor. 
Teach  us  all  to  feel  toward  one  another  even  as  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  felt 
toward  us,  when,  though  we  were  sinful,  and  were  his  enemies,  he  gave  Him- 
self for  us  that  he  might  redeem  us  to  life. 

Bless  thy  Gospel  to-day,  in  all  thy  churches.  By  whomever  it  may  bo 
made  known,  may  thy  Spirit  accompany  it.  And  may  it  be  a  light  to  the 
blind ;  may  it  be  strength  to  the  weak ;  may  it  be  food  to  the  hungry ;  may 
it  be  rest  to  the  weary. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  spread  abroad  the  light  of  truth  throughout  our 
land.  Remember  those  who,  in  the  wilderness,  far  away  from  home  and  its 
memories,  are  gathering  together  their  slender  flocks.  O  Loi'd  oui  God, 
buil4  up  churches  iu  the  waste  places;  and  bless  the  labors  of  those  who  are 
denying  themselves  to  preach  Christ  there.  And  let  thy  kingdom  come 
everywhere.  In  all  the  world  may  we  see  justice  growing  stronger.  May 
we  behold  inhumanity  giving  way,  and  violence  coming  to  an  end.  May 
wars  and  their  causes  cesse.  May  reason  triumph  over  passion.  May 
nations  dash  wildly  against  each  other  no  longer.  May  they  study  peace, 
and  rejoice  in  each  other's  prosperity,  and  seek  to  do  to  each  other  no  harm, 
but  much  good.  We  pray  that  thou  wilt  thus  regenerate  the  world,  anc  ful- 
fill all  thy  promises  of  the  latter-day  glory,  bringing  in  Jew  and  Gentile, 
and  uniting  all  the  world  in  thy  salvation. 

We  ask  these  things  in  the  name  of  Jesu?,  to  whom,  with  the  Father  and 
the  Spirit,  shall  be  praises  evermore.    Atncn. 


XIV. 

The  Inspiration  of  Scripture. 


THE  IISPIRATION  OE  SCRIPTURE. 


•♦  But  continue  Ihou  in  the  things  which  thou  hast  learned  and  hast  been 
assured  of,  knowing  of  whom  thou  hast  learned  them;  and  that  from  a 
child  thou  hast  known  the  holy  Scriptures,  which  are  able  to  make  thee 
wise  unto  salvation  through  faith,  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus.  All  Scripture 
is  given  by  inspiration  of  God,  and  is  profitable  for  doctrine,  for  reproof, 
for  correction,  for  instruction  in  righteousness  ;  that  the  man  of  God  may 
be  perfect,  thoroughly  furnished  unto  all  good  works."— 2  Tim.  III.,  14-17. 


The  end  is  always  more  important  than  the  means.  The  harvest 
is  of  more  value  than  the  implements  by  which  the  harvest  is  cul- 
tured or  reaped.  The  house  is  of  more  value  than  the  tools  by  which 
the  house  is  builded.  The  family  for  whom  the  house  is  built  is  of 
more  value  than  the  house  itself. 

The  real  value  of^the_  Bible  ^s  in  that  whichjt^  does.  In  and 
of  itself,  it  is  but  a  book  ;  but  if  it  has  in  it  the  means  of  making  men 
thoroughly  furnished  unto  every  good  work,  then  it  is  of  transcend- 
ent importance.  And  it  is,  in  any  age,  of  value  in  proportion  to  its 
practical  results.  If  it  does  nothing,  it  is  worth  nothing — worth 
nothing  in  the  same  sense  that  gold  is  worth  nothing  that  lies  in  the 
mountain  nndug  and  unused.  A  medicine  not  discovered  is  useless. 
And  the  Word  of  God  may  be  an  utterly  useless  word,  while  it  may 
be  capable  of  being  transcendently  valuable. 

There  are  two  renderings  for  the  critical  part  of  the  passage 
which  I  have  read. 

"  All  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God." 

Thus  our  authorized  version  has  it.  A  second  rendering,  to  which 
commentators  rather  incline,  in  our  day,  is,  "  Every  scripture  giveyi 
by  inspiration  is  also  profitable  for  teaching^  for  correction"  and  so 
on.  The  one  seems  to  assert  tliat  all  Scriptures,  or,  as  we  should  un- 
derstand it,  all  the  books  which  we  comprise  in  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
are  given  by  inspiration.  That  makes  it  an  affirmation  of  the 
inspiration  of  what  we  know  as  the  Bible.  The  other  rendering, 
which  is  probably  the  correct  one,  makes  it  seem  that  all  Scriptures 

Sunday  Evening,  Dec.  10, 1871.    Lesson :   2  Tim.  n.  2S-36 ;  III.     Hymns  (Plymouth 
Collection :  Nos.  130,  688,  74. 


252  TEE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCBIPTUBE, 

which  are  Inspired  of  God  are  profitable  in  such  and  such  ways. 
Then  it  becomes  a  kind  of  test,  rather  than  an  affirmation. 

I  desire,  to-day,  to  make  some  plain,  practical  remarks  on  th« 
subject  of  the  Bible,  which  seem  to  be  demanded  by  the  times,  andi 
by  the  interest  of  thousands  in  the  community  ;  and  I  shall  address 
myself  especially  to  the  young  who  are  committed  to  my  charge.  I 
do  not  propose — since  it  could  not  be  done  even  by  a  series  of  dis- 
courses— to  go  into  the  whole  subject  of  the  origin,  the  authenticity, 
the  authority,  the  structure,  the  genius  and  the  uses  of  the  Scrip- 
tures which  we  comprise  in  the  Bible.  I  shall  give,  to-day,  rather  an 
introductory  discourse,  hoping  to  resume,  now  and  then,  Avithout 
any  definite,  specified  time,  the  same  general  theme,  to  be  continued 
for  the  purpose  of  throwing  light  on  the  Word  of  God. 

Amonff  all  Christians  not  included  in  hierarchical  church  orofan- 
ization,  the  Bible  is  held  to  be  a  sufficient  authority  for  faith  an  I 
practice.  But  it  is  not  meant  that  it  contains  a^^  truth;  or  that 
every  application  of  truth  is  pointed  out ;  still  less  are  wo  to  hold 
the  Bible  as  a  complete  system  of  truth  in  any  such  sense  as  shall 
exclude  the  idea  of  a  continuous  growth  of  the  truth  in  the  world, 
through  the  experience  of  holy  men,  in  all  successive  ages,  divinely 
taught  and  guided.  It  contains  the  germs  of  all  moral  truth.  But 
human  life  quickens  the  germs  and  carries  out  those  truths  into 
forms  and  applications  which  the  original  did  not  portend. 

This  progressive  development  of  truth  in  human  life,  not  perhaps 
enough  recognized  by  the  Refoi-mers,  was  seized  upon  as  a  dogma 
by  hierarchical  churches.  They  claim  for  the  organized  church  a 
living  divine  inspiration,  by  which  the  decisions  of  the  church  are 
infallibly  true,  on  the  same  ground  that  Protestants  hold  the  Bible 
to  be  true.  While  we  deny  that  any  particular  oi'ganized  church  is 
God's  tongue,  in  this  word,  we  do  recognize  the  fact,  that,  by  the. ex- 
perience of  good  men  of  every  church,  through  long  periods  of 
time,  God  does  bring  out  into  full  development  truths  which  in 
the  Bible  are  but  seeds  or  germs.  We  must  not  make  the  Bible  a 
dead  book  nor  separate  it  from  that  grand  interpreting  medium — 
the  living  conscience  of  holy  men,  through  successive  ages.  A 
Book  of  garnered  truth,  gathei'ed  from  universal  moral  conscious- 
ness of  the  past,  and  framed  under  a  divine  inspiration  into  an 
authoritative  guide  for  conduct,  must  in  every  age  be  surrounded  by 
an  atmosphere  of  living  Christian  consciousness.  If  the  Bible  is  a 
book  of  seeds,  the  living  church,  composed  of  all  good  men  of  every 
house,  is  the  soil  into  which  it  must  fall  if  it  is  to  bring  forth  fiuit. 
We  must  not  make  an  idol  of  the  church,  nor  a  fetich  of  the  Bible. 
God   alone   is   lischt  and  truth.     Both   Church   and  Bible  are  but 


THE  INSPIEATION  OF  SCRIPTURE,  253 

media  through  which  he  shines — and  both  of  them,  if  wisely  used, 
are  adapted  to  lead  on  to  a  continually  progressing  development  of 
truth. 

Attacks  were  formerly  made  upon  the  Bible  by  skeptical  men 
who  were  without  moral  feeling.  The  evils  of  the  organized  church, 
its  alliance  with  the  State,  and  the  great  establishments  which  grew 
up  under  it  and  which  usurped  many  of  the  privileges  of'  the  citi- 
zen, and  variously  interfered  with  his  rights,  were  attributed  to  the 
influence  of  the  Bible.  And  so  there  was  developed  a  revolt 
against  the  Scriptures,  as  well  as  against  the  church.  Both  modes 
of  instructing  the  world  were  condemned.  But  the  skepticism 
which  then  arose  had  only  a  local  and  limited  influence.  It  sprang 
from  exterior  causes.  It  did  not  go  down  so  deep  as  skepticism  has 
since  learned  to  go.  And  it  required  but  comparatively  little  to 
remove  it.  For  many  revivals  of  religion  have  been  the  instru- 
ments, in  the  liands  of  God,  by  which  this  unbelief  lias  been  blown 
away  like  so  mucli  chaff.  The  actual  experiences  in  men's  hearts 
have  liad  the  efRct  of  overthrowing  arguments  of  skepticism,  and 
re-instating  in  their  place  arguments  in  favor  of  the  truth  of  God's 
Word,  and  of  the  church  as  a  witness  of  those  truths. 

But  in  our  day  there  is  a  far  more  serious  danger  attending  the 
Bible  than  there  has  been  at  any  previous  time.  The  assaults  which 
are  made  upon  it  ai-e  more  vital  than  they  ever  were  before.  They 
are  stronger.  They  are  better  aimed.  They  are  more  in  accord- 
ance with  the  general  tendencies  of  human  thought.  They  are  in 
alliance  with  scientific  inquiry.  There  are  a  great  many  reasons 
why  men  should  concern  themselves  as  to  the  future  of  the  truths 
that  are  taught  in  the  Word  of  God, 

It  is  assailed  on  historic  and  critical  grounds  with  an  acuteness 
and  a  range  of  scholarship  which  I  think  never  before  were  brought 
to  the  assault  of  any  book.  If  I  did  not  believe  that  the  prepon- 
derance of  evidence  still  remained  with  the  Bible,  I  should  not  be 
sincere  in  holding  to  it ;  but  I  do  believe  this  :  I  believe  that  the 
historic  grounds  on  Avhich  tlie  Book  rests,  in  its  various  parts,  can 
be  substantiated.  I  believe  that  the  critical  grounds  of  assault 
against  it  can  be  met  and  overthrown  by  fair  critical  knowledge  on 
the  other  side.  Nevertheless,  the  campaign  is  a  vast  one  ;  it  is  going 
to  be  another  Waterloo  ;  and  although  the  armies  of  liberty  will 
conquer  in  the  end,  it  will  be  after  a  severe  conflict.  The  scope 
of  science  in  these  days  is  widening  and  deepening,  and  taking 
up  many  facts  and  theories  for  examination  whicli  it  has  hereto- 
fore let  alone.  It  used  to  be  said  that  the  Word  of  God  confined 
itself  to   the   teaching  of  religion,  that  it  did   not  undertake   to 


254  TEB  INS£IEATION  OF  SCEIFTUEE, 

teach  science ;  and  that,  therefore,  while  it  was  not  to  be  held  to 
accountability  in  scientific  matters,  it  was  an  authority  in  mat- 
ters of  moral  consciousness.  But  science  has  risen  up  anl 
embraced  in  its  arms  these  very  matters  of  moral  conscious- 
ness ;  so  that  the  Word  of  God  is  assailed  by  those  who 
make  a  scientific  study  of  the  prime  elements  on  which  it  stands. 
And  this  is  a  far  more  dangerous  assault  than  it  has  ever 
before  been  called  to  bear.  I  am  not  afraid  of  it — not  a  particle ; 
but  I  perceive  it,  and  I  feel  the  full  weight  of  the  danger. 

This  atmosphere  of  doubt  acts  in  a  great  many  ways.  He  is 
little  conversant  with  what  is  going  on  in  life ;  he  knows  little  of 
the  conversations  and  readings  and  thoughts  of  vigorous,  enterpris- 
ing men,  who  does  not  know  that  there  hangs  over  the  whole  sub- 
ject of  religion,  and  particularly  its  dogmas,  a  great  deal  of  do'ibt 
and  uneasiness,  which  in  some  moods  runs  into  a  kind  of  posilive 
unbelief,  and  which  in  other  moods  re-acts,  and  goes  back  to  the  be- 
lief of  childhood.  There  is  a  state  of  distressing  uncertainty  and 
aberration  of  faith  which  requires  attention. 

There  are  a  great  many  who  are  simply  unsettled.  TheyiP.y: 
"  We  are  not  prepared  to  give  up  the  Book  of  our  fathers  ;  but 
really,  we  have  read  such  and  such  things,  and  we  do  not  know  how 
to  answer  them.  And  we  are  told  of  other  such  and  such  things. 
Some  things  that  used  to  be  taught  for  truth  we  know  are  not  true; 
and  why  may  it  not  be  so  with  all  the  others  ?  Men  who  seem  to  us 
to  be  perfectly  honest,  noble  men,  have  given  up  the  Book,  and 
have  told  us  that  they  did  it  on  the  strictest  grounds  of  scrutiny. 
Kow  what  shall  we  do?  We  are  incompetent  to  judge  of  these 
things  by  our  own  reason,  and  we  look  to  see  how  other  men  are 
tending.  This  unsettles  us  ;  and  we  do  not  know  what  to  believe." 
At  this  point  there  come  in  the  division  of  religious  people.  There 
is  a  lar<Te  body  of  men  outside  of  the  church  who  say  that  the  Word 
of  God  is  not  worthy  of  credence  as  a  revelation,  or  an  inspired  doc- 
ument. And  their  testimony  against  the  Bible  is  strangely  indorsed 
by  the  fact  that  in  the  church  itself  thousands  of  disputes  are  occur- 
rinn-  on  almost  every  point  laid  down  in  the  Word  of  God,  from 
beginning  to  end. 

•  To  me  the  most  dismal  aspect  of  the  divisions  and  conflicts  in 
the  church,  is  at  that  point  where  the  great  controversy  is  raging, 
as  to  whether  there  is  a  God  anyhow ;  where  the  questions  are  being 
asked,  "  Is  there  a  possibility  of  revelation  ?  Is  historic  revelation 
anything  more  than  the  weavings  of  imagination  ?"  At  this  time 
when  the  wind  of  controversy  sweeps  mightily  through  the  whole 
heavens,  men  that  believe  in  the  Bible,  instead  of  fortifying  them- 


TEE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCRIP  TUBE.  255 

selves  against  the  common  enemy,  are  disputing,  I  will  not  say  about 
doctrines  (because  that  would  have  some  nobility  in  it),  but  about 
the  poorest  and  meanest  elements  which  belong  to  exterior  worship 
and  procedure.  These  are  subjects  of  fierce  debate ;  and  men  are 
being  cast  out,  or  taken  in  on  the  letter;  and  the  pharisaism  of 
learning  is  rampant  in  the  Temple,  while  a  cloud  is  gathering  in 
Jerusalem  which  threatens  to  subvert  the  Temple  and  the  city  itself. 
The  conflicts  which  are  going  on  as  to  forms,  and  ceremonies, 
and  methods,  and  liturgies,  and  the  doctrinal  conflicts  in  the 
Christian  church,  at  such  a  time  as  this,  cannot  but  surprise 
one.  It  is  as  if  a  ship  were  surrounded  by  a  piratical  craft,  and 
in  danger  of  being  captured  and  destroyed,  while  those  on 
board,  instead  of  making  resistance,  or  endeavoring  to  escape, 
quarrel  with  each  other  as  to  the  quality  of  the  buttons  on  their 
jackets,  or  the  number  of  teeth  in  their  combs,  or  the  material  and 
cut  of  their  garments,  or  how  powder  is  made,  or  whether  one  brand 
of  powder  is  better  than  another. 

Now,  a  state  of  doubt  in  respect  to  the  Word  of  God  is,  in  its 
practical  consequences,  just  as  fatal  as  unbelief. 

When  a  man  would  come  into  the  port  of  New  York,  it  is  not 
necessary,  in  order  to  defeat  his  purpose,  that  the  ice  should  be  frozen 
across  the  bar,  or  that  there  should  be  a  chain  drawn  across  the  chan- 
nel, or  that  forts  should  blaze  away  and  sink  him.  Only  let  the 
white  mist  fall  down  from  the  cool  heaven,  and  stretch  from  shore 
to  shore, — that  is  all  that  is  necessary  to  prevent  his  progress. 

Only  let  unbelief  settle  upon  the  mind;  let  there  come  down  in- 
to it,  I  will  not  say  conviction  affamst,  but  uncertainty  about,  the 
truths  of  God's  Word, — and  to  all  intents  and  purposes  you  have 
paralyzed  faith.     And  without  faith  there  is  no  religion. 

A  man,  we  will  suppose,  is  steering  by  his  compass ;  but  the 
thought  flashes  across  his  mind,  "  The  compass  may  be  out  of  order 
— who  knows  ?"  And  the  moment  that  idea  enters  his  head  all  his 
comfort  is  gone.  He  is  steering  by  that  tremulous  finger ;  bii,t,  after 
all,  that  tremulous  finger  may  be  betraying  him.  If  he  has  but  one 
compass  he  has  great  trouble ;  and  if  he  has  two  he  is  worse  off*,  be- 
cause he  does  not  know  which  of  them  to  follow. 

I  believe  in  my  watch.  I  have  tried  it  and  proved  it.  For  two 
years  it  has  never  once  failed  me.  I  know  it  is  right.  And  what- 
ever railroad  men  or  others  may  say  about  the  time,  I  take  this  little 
watch  for  my  guide,  and  have  implicit  faith  in  it.  But  if  to-morro-w 
morning  I  should  find  that  it  had  jumped  an  hour,  it  would  unsettle 
the  faith  which  two  years  of  correct  time-keeping  have  given  me.  I 
might   say,   "It  kept  correct   time  for  two   years;   but  tlien  it 


256  TEE  INSPIEATION  OF  SCEIFTUEE, 

jumped  in  one  night  a  whole  hour;  and  how  do  I  know  "but  it 
will  do  that  again?"  Uncertainty  would  substantially  take  away- 
all  the  value  of  it. 

Now,  the  Word  of  God,  to  be  of  value  to  you,  or  to  me,  must  be 
as  implicitly  believed  in  as  our  own  existence ;  and  if  there  come 
from  any  quarter  such  a  degree  of  disturbance  of  faith  that  we  are 
uncertain  about  the  substantial  element  of  its  truth,  to  us  it  is  blot- 
ted out  as  a  power.  Now  and  then  it  may  feed  a  sentiment;  now 
and  then  it  may  solace  a  memory ;  now  and  then  it  may,  like  a  poem, 
chant  strains  which  bring  old  and  sweet  associations  back  to  the 
mind  ;  but  as  the  power  of  God  and  the  wisdom  of  God  unto  salva^ 
tion,  it  has  ceased  to  have  any  important  efficacy. 

There  are  thousands  of  men  (and  some  of  them  are  in  this  con- 
gregation) who  would  not  say  that  they  disbelieve  the  Bible,  but 
who  could  not  say  that  they  believe  it.  They  are  in  a  state  of  un- 
certainty in  which  the  moral  power  of  the  book  is  broken. 

This  growing  uneasiness  works  out  along  very  different  lines,  in 
different  dispositions,  and  under  different  circumstances.  One  class 
of  men  say,  "  Of  what  use  is  a  book  which  learned  men  are  in  utter 
uncertainty  about  ?  What  is  the  use  of  a  book  to  guide  us  when 
scarcely  two  of  those  who  take  it  as  a  guide  agree  as  to  its  guidance  ? 
What  is  the  use  of  a  chart  when  all  shipmasters  interpret  it  differ- 
ently? What  is  the  use  of  a  guide-board  which  misleads  one  half 
of  those  who  employ  it  ?  And  if  the  Word  of  God  is  a  light 
shining  in  a  dark  place,  and  a  lamp  to  our  feet,  and  a 
guide  to  our  path,  and  the  man  of  our  counsel,  ought  it  not  to  be 
so  reliable  that  all  honest  men  at  least  shall  substantially  agree 
with  it  ?  "  To  this  I  answer  Yes  !  And  not  only  should  it  be  so, 
but  it  is  so,  in  the  one  very  essential  particular  for  which  it  was 
designed.  The  part  of  Scri])ture  about  which  there  is  certainty,  is 
that  wliich  is  pointed  out  in  our  text ; 

"All  Scripture  given  by  inspiration  of  God  is  profitable  for  doctrine,  for  re- 
proof, for  correction,  for  instruction  in  righteousness  ;  that  the  man  of  God 
may  be  perfect,  thoroughly  furnished  uuto  all  good  works." 

I  hold  that  the  Word  of  God  as  a  guide  in  the  tormationof  .disr 
positions,  in  the  regulatiim^  of  conduct  and  character,  in  the 
founding  of  hope  for  this  life  and  for  the  life  which  is  to  come,  ia 
a  reliable  guide,  is  a  sufficient  instructor,  about  which  all  honest  men 
do  in  the  main  agree.  But  if  you  undertake  to  erect  a  cosmogony, 
and  to  say  that  the  Bible  lays  down  a  perfect  system,  a  complete 
scheme  of  philosophy;  if  you  go  beyond  that,  and  claim  that  it 
prescribes  a  definite  plan  for  a  church,  a  church  order  and  a  church 
government ;  and  if  you  include  in  its  economy  moral  philosophy  in 
the  form  of  theology,  I  say  that  the  Word  of  God  is  not  sufficient 


THE  mSPIBATION  OF  8CBIPTUBE.  257 

for  these  things ;  and  men  disagree  about  the  Bible  because  they  are 
undertalving  to  do  with  it  what  it  was  never  intended  to  effect  *' ') 

Everything  to  its  own  function.  A  lancet  for  the  vein — not 
for  digging  the  soil ;  a  telescope  for  the  eye — not  for  sound ;  a 
cap  for  the  head — not  for  hands  or  feet.  A  table  of  logarithms 
in  the  sphere  of  morals  Avould  be  a  poor  substitute  for  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments, but  not  worse  than  the  Ten  Commandments  in  navi- 
gation. Is  an  anchor  not  good  because  it  will  not  travel  like  a 
carriage?  Is  a  treatise  on  medicine  not  useful  because  it  affords  no 
instruction  in  geography  or  history  ? 

God's  Word  sets  forth  the  nature  of  good  and  evil ;  of  virtue 
and  vice  ;  of  sin  and  holiness ;  of  goodness  or  ungodliness  ;  it  points 
out  the  elements  of  character  needful  for  the  highest  manhood.  It 
teaches  the  divine  nature,  in  so  far  as  men  can  receive  it  by  simili- 
tudes of  human  experience.  It  furnishes  motives  for  right  living 
drawn  from  two  worlds.  It  reveals  the  methods  of  recuperation  in 
moral  disorders.  It  opens  to  us  the  spiritual  relations  which  may 
subsist  between  the  human  soul  and  the  Divine  Spirit,  It  makes 
known  the  holiness  of  God,  whose  nature  is  the  critci'ion  of  all 
characters,  and  of  all  right  government.  In  short,  the  Bible  is  a 
book  of  instructions,  in  respect  to  human  life  and  destiny.  It  con- 
cerns itself  with  Character  and  Conduct.  No  man  need  err  w*  6 
honestly  uses  the  Bible  for  the  purpose  of  forming  his  disposition  or 
guiding  his  moral  life.  If  he  wishes  to  know  the  noblest  qualities 
of  soul,  there  are  the  Beatitudes.  If  he  desire  the  loftiest  ideal  of 
every  day  life,  there  is  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  If  he  would 
know  the  Divine  disposition,  there  is  Jesus  Christ.  If  he  would 
overcome  the  fear  of  death,  he  may  hear  the  Apostle  at  the  grave's 
mouth  lifting  up  a  sublime  psalm  of  victory  for  himself,  and  for  all 
who  have  learned  the  royal  law  of  love.  If  there  were  in  the  Bible 
not  another  sentence  than  this  :  Love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  Law^ 
it  would  deserve  to  be  placed  above  every  book,  for  having  given  to 
the  world  the  central  and  grandest  truth  of  human  life.  The  sov- 
ereignty of  Love,  in  God  and  in  man,  as  the  supreme  philosophy 
of  the  Universe,  now  and  hereafter,  is  a  discovery  in  moral  govern- 
ment transcending  in  importance  the  discoveries  of  Newton  as  much 
as  the  living  soul  transcends  in  importance  the  inorganic  matter  of 
the  globe  !  i 

The  Bible  conies  to  us,  not  like  a  treatise  consecutively  com- 
posed by  one  man,  or  a  symmetrical  system  of  philosopliy  drawn 
out  according  to  the  requirements  of  modern  thouglit.  It  is  a  clus- 
ter of  separate  growths,  going  on  through  ages,  and  yet,  like  some 
vast  old  oak,  or  Cedar  of  Lebanon,  all  its  additions,  to  the  last  and 


^^ 


258  TEE  INSFIBA  TION  OF  SCEIFTUBE. 

outermost  twig,  cohere  around  the  one  trunk,  stand  on  the  one  root, 
and  partake  of  the  peculiar  nature  of  the  original.  Its  earliest  scenes 
are  the  simplest  histories  of  pastoral  life;  its  latest  are  the  inciters 
of  renowned  civilization.  But  whether  it  speak  in  the  picture  lan- 
guage of  the  early  Hebrew,  or  in  the  language  of  Plato,  its  testi- 
mony to  truth,  virtue,  goodness,  and  godliness,  is  grandly  one.  If 
the  book  itself  has  no  literary  structure  of  symmetry,  it  harmonizes 
the  moral^sense  of  the  Ages,  gives  to  the  widely  separated  periods 
of  History  one  mind,  one  heart,  and  one  interpretation  of  the  uni- 
versal aspiration. 

Used  as  a  book  of  Political  Economy,  it  will  yield  much  wis- 
dom, though  still  not  set  forth  as  a  teacher  of  Political  Economy, 
except  in  the  element  of  morals.  Used  as  a  book  of  physical  sci- 
ence, it  aflbrds  important  historical  help;  but  it  is  not  a  scientific 
manual.  Incidentally  it  is  full  of  history,  of  poetry,  of  jurispru- 
dence, of  homely  wisdom  in  trade.  But  its  true  value  is  seen  Omy 
when  it  begins  to  teach  how  the  man  of  God  tnay  be  thoroughly 
furnished  to  every  good  work. 
1^  Another  class  Avho  are  tending  toward  doubt  and  unbelief, 
set  themselves  to  the  study  of  "  the  evidences."  Sometimes 
they  come  out  one  way,  and  sometimes  another.  Men  seem  to 
think  that  the  study  of  the  evidences  is  a  very  simple  matter ; 
but  when  you  take  into  consideration  that  the  Bible  is  a  complex 
series  of  books,  written  in  different  ages  and  nations  and  languages, 
and  running  tlirough  a  space  of  several  thousand  years ;  that  in 
their  structure  they  represent  the  sum  of  the  knowledges  of  certain 
nations — there  being,  for  instance,  books  in  which  is  included  all 
that  the  Jews  knew  of  science,  of  political  economy,  of  poetry,  and 
of  religion, — you  perceive  that  the  field  which  they  cover  is  too  vast 
for  a  single  mind  to  explore.  And  when  /ou  come  to  study  these 
books  in  their  antiquities,  in  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  people 
to  which  they  relate,  and  in  the  languages  in  which  they  are  writ- 
ten, you  enter  upon  a  work  which  belongs  only  to  men  of  scholarly 
equipment.  And  one  cannot  help  smiling  to  see  a  plain  man  under- 
taking to  study  out  the  evidences  of  the  Bible  with  a  Greek  Testa- 
ment in  his  hand,  and  endeavoring  to  determine  the  meaning  of  the 
Greek,  knowing  nothing  about  the  language  whatsoever  except  that 
which  he  sees  in  the  interlineations.  The  investigation  of  the 
structure  of  the  Bible,  and  of  the  material  Avhich  relates  to  its 
physical  birth,  and  growth,  and  life,  is  a  scholar's  work.  It  is  so 
large,  and  it  requires  such  minute  and  various  learning,  that  in  any 
single  age  even  scholars  are  not  competent  to  exhaust  the  subject. 
It  is  a  succession  of  scholars  from  age  to  age  that  at  last  bring 


TEE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCRIP  TUBE.  259 

the  truth  to  the  judgment-seat,  and  determine  matters.  And  when  a 
plain  unlettered  man  undertakes  to  study  the  evidences  of  the  Bible — 
that  is,  all  questions  that  relate  to  the  hook  of  Genesis ;  and  its  state- 
ments concerning  the  origin  of  things;  all  questions  that  relate  to  the 
existence  of  God;  all  questions  that  spring  from  the  miracles  of  the 
Old  Testament ;  all  questions  that  relate  to  Solomon  and  to  David, 
and  the  administrations  under  them;  to  the  Temple  system;  to  the 
birth  and  career  of  the  Saviour,  and  to  the  lives  of  the  aj^ostles, 
— not  being  in  the  habit  of  study,  and  not  being  versed  in 
such  matters,  it  is  as  if  a  man,  listening  to  an  old  sailor's 
account  of  Avhat  he  had  seen  in  his  travels  around  the  globe, 
should  say,  "  Well,  I  am  going  to  dive  into  the  ocean,  and 
swim  all  over  the  world,  and  see  these  things  for  myself."  But 
he  will  swim  the  ocean,  and  gd  into  every  bay  and  inlet,  and  up 
e*ery  river  and  creek,  and  down  to  the  bottom,  and  everywhere, 
twice  as  quick  as  an  untrained,  unscholarly  man  Avill  investigate 
all  the  questions  which  belong  to  that  wonderful  encyclopoedia,  the 
book  of  God,  in  its  interior  history,  and  in  all  the  elements  which 
pertain  to  that  history.  Such  an  investigation  requires  great  learn- 
ing, if  carried  forward  to  a  common  ground  of  cei'tainty. 

Now,  I  believe  that  the  investigations  instituted  by  scholars  have 
come  to  results  more  and  more  in  accordance  Avith  the  truth,  with 
the  authority  of  the  Scripture,  and  with  the  real  spiritual  value  of 
the  Word  of  God ;  but  I  know  that  I  could  not  investigate  the 
Bible  for  myself,  de  novo,  although  my  whole  life  were  spent- in  the 
work.  There  is  nothing  that  I  feel  so  incompetent  to  do  as  to  ad- 
judicate on  these  external  questions.  And  I  do  not  believe  that 
one  young  man  in  a  thousand  is  competent  to  inquire  into  them  and 
decide  them. 

But  I  am  competent  to  know  whether  the  truth  is  better  than 
a  lie  ;  and  so  are  you.  I  am  competent  to  know  what  elements  go 
to  make  true  manhood  ;  and  so  are  you.  I  am  competent  to  know 
whether  it  is  best  that  men  should  have  immortality  hereafter,  or  die 
like  beasts  ;  and  so  are  you.  I  am  competent  to  know  that  love  is 
better  than  hatred  ;  and  so  are  you.  Inspirations  may  be  o-iven 
to  you  and  to  me  to  understand  the  Bible,  just  as  they  were  orio-in- 
ally  given  to  men  who  wrote  the  Bible.  Spiritual  purity  and  divine 
love  are  the  elements  which  go. to  constitute  the  great  doctrine  of 
God,  whether  they  be  constructed  into  a  theory  or  not.  We  have  a 
knowledge  of  certain  great  truths  which  are  beyond  peradventure. 
There  is  given  to  all  a  moral  instinct  which  you  cannot  throw  out  ; 
or  which,  if  you  do  throw  out,  will  come  back  like  a  dove  to  its 
window.     There  is  in  every  man  a  moral  consciousness  that  mter- 


260  th:e  msfjbation  of  sceiftume. 

prets  truth,  that  opens  up  communion  between  God  and  man,  thai 
lights  the  candle  of  the  future,  and  that  inspires  hope  therein.  There 
is  in  you  and  in  me  an  almost  unerring  guide — a  truly  unerring 
guide,  if  we  be  honest  with  ourselves — in  respect  to  the  vital  portions 
of  Scripture.  The  external  history  of  the  Bible  is  beyond  our 
reach,  except  so  far  as  we,  as  docile  scholars,  receive  what  others 
bear  witness  concerning  it ;  but  the  internal  part  of  the  Bible  we  can 
know ;  and  it  is  our  fault  if  we  do  not  know  it. 

Right  over  against  those  who  doubt  and  those  who  atud.^_£id- 
denceg,  we  find  a  class  of  persons — excellent  men — who  are  supposed 
to  be  safe  persons,  and  who,  doubtless,  are  safe  for  themselves,  and 
for  those  who  are  like  them,  but  who  are  for  others  unsafe  guides. 
I  mean  the  devotee,  who,  seeing  the  mischiefs  of  doubt  in  the  com- 
munity, undertakes  to  C!».re  them  by  refusing  to  doubt  anything  ; 
who  believes  with  an  indiscriminate  all-credulous  disposition ; 
who  denies  himself  thought,  and  denies  it  to  others  ;  who 
says,  "If  you  begin  there  is  no  end;"  who  says,  "If  you  once 
undertake  to  apply  philosophy  to  Scripture,  you  never  can  tell 
where  you  will  come  out  ;"  who  says,  "  You  must  take  the 
Word  of  God  just  as  it  is."  Where  ?  in  the  Greek  ?  Oh,  you  can- 
not read  Greek.  Well,  as  it  is  in  translation  ?  So,  then,  you  do  not 
take  it  as  it  is  in  the  original  ;  you  take  as  it  has  been  translated. 
And  when  it  was  translated  was  there  not  an  application  of  phil- 
osophy ?  Did  a  man  ever  translate  an  idea  without  using  phil- 
osophy ?  Men  say,  "  You  must  take  the  Bible  just  as  it  is  ;  you 
must  read  it  literally."     That  is  absurd.     Christ  says  : 

"  If  any  man  believe  in  me,  out  of  his  belly  shall  flow  rivers  of  water." 

Shall  I  take  that  literally  ?  Well,  no  ;  tliat  is  a  figure.  Very 
good,  how  shall  I  determine  which  is  figure  and  which  is  not  ?  You 
must  reason  about  the  Bible.  You  cannot  help  yourself.  It  is  full 
of  poetry  ;  and  have  I  a  right  to  take  the  declarations  of  poetry  and 
use  them  as  I  would  exact  definitions  ?  I  falsify  the  record  if  I  do. 
There  was  never  a  book  that  justified  and  required  so  much  reason- 
ing, in  the  right  way,  as  the  Bible — the  reasoning  of  common  sense. 
"  But,"  say  men,  "  everything  is  uncertain  about  the  Bible."  O, 
no,  there  are  some  things  that  are  certain  about  it.  Yet  it  is  not  wise 
to  undertake  to  apply  modern  science  to  it,  or  to  undertake  to  go 
into  this  cosmogony  or  that  cosmogony.  Some  men  drive  all  things 
into  their  faith  as  all  beasts  were  driven  into  the  ark.  They  are  in 
a  vast  ark,  and  out  on  a  vast  sea,  without  any  pilotage,  but  with  no 
Ararat  on  which  to  land. 

Now,  although  this  may  be  safe,  it  is  safe  only  in  respect  to  men 
who  are  not  in  danger  anyhow  from  unbelief,  or  from  over-reason- 


TRE  IN  ST  IB  A  TION  OF  SGRIPTTJEE.  261 

ing,  or  from  under-reasoning,  or  from  wrong  reasoning.  There  are 
men  who  have  a  just  pride  of  knowledge,  and  who  do  not  want  to 
be  led  by  the  nose  either  by  priest  or  by  government.  There  are 
some  men  who  have  been  brought  up  to  feel  that  they  have  a 
responsibility  laid  on  them  for  some  sort  of  knowledge  or  education, 
and  they  say,  "  I  am  not  going  to  be  swayed  hither  and  thither, 
like  a  dead  leaf  on  a  living  river."  So  they  carry  the  Bible  like  a 
closed  book. 

If  there  is  one  thing  more  true  than  another,  it  is  that  the  Bible 
was  never  meant  to  go  against  nature.  If  God  made  the  Bible,  he 
made  it  in  such  a  sense  true  that  the  marrow  of  it  is  coincident  with 
the  truths  of  the  creation.  If  Scripture  is  from  God,  so  the 
outward  world  is  from  the  hand  of  God.  And  God  will  not  tell  lies. 
He  will  not  contradict  in  one  revelation  what  he  has  written  in 
another.  And  if  the  Word  of  God  is  so  construed  that  it  is  brought 
into  conflict  with  the  truths  that  are  outside  of  it,  something  must 
give  way  —  human  interpretations  or  divine  facts — and  facts  will 
not. 

Intepreters  once  tried  this  authoritative  process  on  the  sun.  The 
Bun  had  all  the  time  been  supposed  to  move,  and  the  world  had  been 
supposed  to  stand  still.  A  literal  interpretation  was  given  to  the 
Scripture  account  of  the  sun's  standing  still.  The  world,  it  was  sup- 
posed, was  built  on  an  immovable  foundation.  It  was  believed  from 
the  statement  in  the  Bible  that  the  sun  rose,  and  that  when  it  was 
about  to  set  it  was  stopped  in  its  course  by  Joshua.  As- 
tronomy, it  was  thought,  was  fixed  by  the  Bible.  And  when, 
by  and  by,  there  came  a  man  who  had  read  God's  other  reve- 
lation, and  found  out  that  while  the  sun  moved  it  did  not  move  in 
any  such  sense  as  men  supposed,  and  declared  this  to  the  world, 
all  the  church  rose  up  against  him  and  tried  him  and  condemned 
him,  and  made  him  step  up  to  the  altar,  and  say,  "  I  recant  ;  I  take 
it  back."  But  just  as  quick  as  they  turned  to  go  away  he  said,  "  It 
<?oe«  move,  though !"  There  were  one  or  two  star-gazers  who  believed 
as  he  did  ;  and  there  was  nothing  on  their  side  except  a  fact.  But 
what  a  fact  it  was  !  The  sun  in  tlie  heavens  where  God  put  it, 
moved  in  its  remote  sphere  inconspicuously,  and  the  earth,  one  of 
the  planets,  was  sweeping  around  it.  This  was  a  demonstrabie  fact ; 
and  against  it,  apparently,  were  the  lettex",  hereditary  opinions,  and 
the  interpreting  authority  of  the  church.  At  a  time  when  the 
church  comprised  the  world,  the  whole  church  arrayed  itself,  with 
the  letter  on  its  side,  against  this  simple  astronomical  fact.  And  the 
fact  killed  the  theologians.  Then  the  whole  world  said,  "  Oh,  well, 
the  Bible  does  not  undertake  to  teach  matters  about  astronomy.  Wq 


262  THE  IFSPIEATION  OF  SCEIPTUBE. 

are  to  interpret  the  letter  according  to  the  fact  which  is  outside 
of  it. 

Then  came,  not  a  great  while  ago — within  my  memory — the  in- 
vestigations of  geology.  Men  said,  "  God  has  Avritten  on  the  face 
of  the  earth  in  a  handwriting  that  can  be  understood  ;  it  is  seen  on 
the  rocks  ;  he  has  put  his  dates  there  ;  and  this  world  is  older  than 
Bix  thousand  years.  Certainly  the  creation  of  this  world  could  not 
be  compressed  within  the  short  space  of  time  that  it  is  said  to  have 
been."  Men  say,  "  How  do  you  know  anything  about  the  time  re- 
quired for  the  creation  of  the  globe  ?  How  can  geology  teach  any- 
thing about  it  ?"  By  the  significant  sign  of  cause  and  effect. 
To  deny  the  evidence  of  cause  and  effect  in  geology  is  to  deny 
the  only  principle  on  which  you  can  demonstrate  the  existence  of 
a  God. 

If  a  man  find  a  watch,  he  is  perfectly  certain  that  it  could  not 
make  itself.  He  knows  that  it  must  have  had  a  maker.  And  so, 
when  Ave  see  certain  effects  in  the  Avorld,  we  say,  *'  These  effects  must 
have  had  a  cause.  A  part  of  these  effects  are  sentient  creatures ; 
and  they  never  could  have  originated  themselves."  Men  recog- 
nized the  general  fact  that  where  there  Avas  an  effect  it  must  have 
had  a  cause,  and  that  the  cause  corresponded  to  the  effect.  From 
these  premises  they  reasoned  that  there  Avas  an  almighty  God.  Not 
because  they  saAV  the  Avorld  created ;  but  by  reasoning  along  the 
line  of  cause  and  effect  they  deduced  the  existence  of  a  God.  It 
Avas  from  precisely  thia  argument  that  the  age  of  the  Avorld  Avas 
deduced.  And  if  the  argument  of  cause  and  effect  is  valid  in  one's 
belief  in  regard  to  the  existence  of  God,  it  is  just  as  valid  in  regard 
to  the  creation  of  the  Avorld,  Men  cried,  "  Genesis  says  that  six  days 
God  labored,  and  rested  on  the  seventh  day  ;"  and  the  Avhole  church 
thundered  at  the  infidelity  of  geology,  and  men  Avere  denounced  as 
unbelievers  AA'ho  accepted  its  testimony.  And  yet,  there  AA^as  that 
old  rock-record ;  there  it  contentedly  and  quietly  stood ;  and  men 
from  generation  to  generation  went  to  look  at  it,  and  read  it.  And 
what  has  been  the  result  ?  The  rocks  are  not  changed,  and  their 
testimony  is  not  changed,  but  the  construction  of  Genesis  is  changed. 
Almost  every  interpreter  of  the  Bible  of  the  present  day  says, 
"  A  day  is  an  indefinite  period."  And  the  account  in  Genesis  is  now 
held  up  as  one  of  the  most  remarkable  of  statements  because  it  de- 
clares the  order  of  creation  as  science  itself  deduces  it.  And  Avhen 
it  speaks  of  the  time  occupied  in  the  AA'orld's  creation  it  is  univer- 
sally construed  to  mean,  not  limited  spaces  of  time,  but  gigantic 
periods.  And  so  science  and  geology  are  reconciled  Avith  the  deo 
larations  of  Genesia 


TEE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCBIPTUEE.  26a 

It  is  said  to  young  men,  "  i''ou  ouglit  not  to  read  in  matters  of 
science;  it  is  very  dangerous."  I  do  not  know  Avhat  is  not  danger- 
ous. There  is  only  one  thing  that  I  caa  think  of  that  is  not  danger- 
ous, and  that  is  dying.  Being  born  is  dangerous  enough.  And  it 
is  dangerous  to  live.  It  is  more  and  more  dangerous  to  live  as  you 
grow  and  develop.  It  is  dangerous  to  read,  and  it  is  dangerous 
not  to  read.  It  is  dangerous  to  use  your  eyes,  and  it  is  dangerous 
not  to  use  them.  It  is  dangerous  not  to  believe  enougli,  and  it  is 
dangerous  to  believe  too  much.  Men  are  but  stumbling  machines. 
Things  never  go  in  right  lines  and  symmetries.  Men  grope,  and 
the  world  gropes,  in  matters  that  touch  the  deep  foundations  of 
happiness.  And  among  the  mysteries  of  time  is  the  fact  that  men 
are  left  with  all  the  responsibilities  and  all  the  risks  of  exploration, 
with  its  mistakes,  its  over-actions,  and  its  under-actions. 

I  do  not  say  to  young  men,  "  Do  not  acquaint  yourselves  Avith 
natural  science  ;"  but  I  urge  upon  them,  "Do  not  make  haste."  I 
will  not  tell  them,  "  Do  not  read ;"  but  I  do  say  to  them,  "  Study,'''' 
I  would  not  say,  "Do  not  deduce  conclusions;"  but  I  advise 
them,  "  Do  not  make  haste  to  deduce  conclusions.  Be  patient. 
Wait."  I  never  say  to  them,  "  Do  not  fearlessly  let  the  light  of 
science  shine  on  the  Word  of  God  ;"  but  I  do  say  to  them,  "  Never 
abandon  that  Book  as  a  guide  to  your  feet  in  those  vital  elements 
of  which  it  teaches;  do  not  abandon  it  in  its  marrow,  for  the  sake 
of  scientific  deductions." 

Why,  in  order  to  have  wheat  you  must  have  bran  and  chaff  and 
straw.  Men  cannot  in  this  world  raise  up  a  truth  and  not  have  a 
human  and  a  perishing  vehicle  .through  which  it  shall  develop  itself. 
There  is  much  in  the  mere  external  structure,  in  the  outward  mech- 
anism or  history,  of  any  treatise  of  truth,  that  may  be  subject  to 
doubt,  or  modification,  or  change  ;  but  the  question  is  whether  there 
are  not  internal  elements  Avhich  ai-e  transcendently  more  important 
than  any  of  these  external  ones.  The  question  is  whether  these 
internal  elements  do  not  remain  when  the  others  have  perished. 
They  do.  The  spiritual  force  of  tlie  Bible  gains  more  and  more 
in  every  generation.  Its  internal  elements  are  inexpugnable.  Not 
all  that  is  said  about  them,  not  all  the  doctrines  that  are  Avoven 
out  of  them,  will  stand  ;  but  I  believe  in  my  soul  that  when  sci- 
ence has  driven  in  its  shafts,  and  exploded  all  that  is  separable 
from  the  theories  Avhich  are  deduced  from  the  Scripture,  an<i 
when  the  world  has  been  brought  by  better  knowledge  closer  to 
moral  consciousness,  it  Avill  be  found  that  the  Word  of  God  will 
Btand  higher,  as  well  as  safer  than  it  does  to-day. 

It  was  never  wise,  it  seems  to  me,  for  men  to  refuse  to  open  their 


264  TEE  INSPIEATION  OF  SCBIFTUBE. 

eyes  to  the  truth,  or  to  hear  what  might  be  said  in  reference  to 
the  Word  of  God.  And  it  is  fatally  unwise  in  our  day  to  refuse 
thought  to  men,  or  to  dissuade  them  from  it,  because  there  is  open- 
ing up  an  immense  field  of  investigation  outside  of  the  Bible, 
bearing  on  topics  respecting  the  origin  of  man,  his  physical  life,  his 
adaptation  to  civil  government,  and  his  liberty  or  circumscription. 
The  questions  of  right  and  wrong ;  the  questions  of  moral  respon- 
sibility; the  questions  which  relate  to  the  formation  of  character; 
the  questions  which  relate  to  moral  consciousness  and  moral  intui- 
tion ;  the  questions  which  relate  to  the  all-informing  spirit  and  pres- 
ence and  power  of  the  Divine — these  are  questions  that  long  have 
waited  for  light  and  knowledge.  When  they  have  been  solved  by 
patient  investigation,  they  will  every  one  of  them  come  back  like  so 
many  singing-birds  to  settle  on  the  branches  of  this  tree  of  life.  And 
we  shall  be  all  the  better  for  it. 

I  do  not  believe  that  anything  will  ever  permanently  destroy  the 
hold  of  the  Bible  upon  men's  love  and  trust.  It  may  be  done,  how- 
ever, by  claiming  lor  it,  what  it  does  not  claim  for  itself,  and  what 
cannot  be  substantiated — that  it  is  the  sum  of  all  secular  knowledge. 

When  we  rise  to  the  other  life,  we  shall  find  that  this  world, 
the  whole  of  it,  is  but  a  mere  punctuation  point  in  that  system 
which  God  is  conducting,  and  that  the  truths  which  are  believed 
here  are,  exactly  as  Paul  said  they  Avere,  partial.  Said  that  intense 
believer  and  intense  skeptic, 

"Now  I  know  in  part."    "Now  we  see  through  a  glass,  darkly  "  [dimly]. 

He  that  had  had  ambitions ;.  he  that  had  stood  in  the  topmost 
places  of  learning,  did  not  pretend  that  he  knew  everything.  Though 
he  had  been  caught  up  into  the  seventh  heaven,  and  had  seen  things 
which  it  was  impossible  to  utter,  he  did  Jiot  pretend  that  he  knew 
all  things.  But  he  knew  enough  to  love  Christ,  and  to  believe  that 
Christ  would  give  him  immortality,  and  to  never  fail  in  his  fealty 
and  affection.  And  he  said,  substantially,  "  All  that  I  know  in  this 
world,  compared  with  what  I  shall  know  when  I  see  God,  is  as  what 
I  knew  when  I  was  a  child  compared  with  what  I  know  now." 

"When  I  was  a  child,  I  spake  as  a  child,  I  understood  as  a  child,  I  thought 
as  a  child  ;  but  when  I  became  a  man,  I  put  away  childish  things.  For  now 
we  see  through  a  glass,  darkly  ;  but  then  face  to  face  :  now  I  know  in  part ; 
but  then  shall  I  know  even  as  also  I  am  known.    And  now  abideth " 

He  knew  that  there  would  be  a  modification  in  the  progress  of 
knowledge;  he  knew  that  many  things  would  be  changed;  but  there 
were  three  things  that  he  knew  w^ould  stay.  What  Avere  they  ? 
Doctrines  of  science  ?  Principles  of  political  economy  ?  Intellectual 
convictions  ? 

"Xow  abideth  faith,  hope,  love,  these  three." 


THI^  INS  FIE  A  TION  OF  SCRIP  TV  BE.  265 

They  were  realities;  they  were  absolute  ;  they  were  for  all  time, 

forever.     But  they  were  not  equal     One  was  to  be  lifted  up  above 

the  otliers. 

"The  greatest  of  these  is  love." 

Faith  and  hoi^e  were  to  be  the  auxiliaries  and  helpers  of  love. 
This  he  kncAV. 

Now,  I  protest  against  such  a  use  of  the  Word  of  God  as  many 
men  are  constantly  tempted  to  make  of  it,  putting  it  in  the  way  of 
scientific  inquiry;  calling  their  interpretation  of  the  Bible,  the  Bi- 
ble ;  and  stopi^ing  men's  investigations  by  saying,  '•  Tae  Scripture 
says  so  and  so  ;"and  crying  out  '•'' InJideV  to  those  who  push  their  in- 
quiries beyond  the  ordinary  bounds,  and  attempt  to  unfold  certain 
occult  mysteries  of  life.  To-day  science  is  exploring  in  every  direc- 
tion; and  in  every  direction  men  are  found  with  their  little  Bi- 
bles in  their  hands,  saying  to  science,  "  You  must  not !  You  will 
destroy  this  book  !"  If  I  had  no  more  faith  in  this  book  than  they 
have,  I  would  not  believe  it  at  all.  Do  you  suppose  men  are  going 
to  destroy  that  book  ?  If  it  is  what  we  have  held  it  to  be,  God's 
truth,  then  it  ought  to  stand,  and  it  will  stand  ;  but  if  it  is  not 
God's  absolute  truth,  then  give  me  that  truth.  The  value  of 
the  Bible  to  me  is  in  this,  that  I  believe  it  to  be  God's  testimony  of 
things  which  it  is  transcendently  important  for  me  to  know.  If  it 
is  not  so,  then  I  ain  more  concL>rned  in  having  it  disjn-oved  than 
anyUiing  else.  And  I  invoke  science,  poetry  and  philosophy,  and 
say  to  them,  "  My  belief  in  the  Bible  is  founded  on  actual  experi- 
ence. I  have  tasted  the  fruit  that  is  growing  on  that  tree ;  I  have 
fed  on  it ;  and  I  know  what  it  is.  I  know  wliat  the  affections  are. 
I  have  tried  them.  I  know  what  living  one  way  is,  and  wiiat  living 
another  way  is.  I  know  what  aspiration  is  on  the  one  side,  and 
what  small  attainment  is  on  the  other  side.  I  know  what  faith  and 
hope  are;  and  I  know  what  unbelief  is.  I  know  what  benevolence 
is ;  and  I  know  what  selfishness  and  avarice  are.  I  know  the  carnal 
man  ;  and  I  know  the  spiritual  man.  I  know  the  modes  by  which 
the  one  is  controlled,  and  the  other  is  directed  ;  and  I  find  these 
modes  to  accord  exactly  with  this  Direction  Book.  And  whatever 
moral  or  casuistical  questions  may  arise,  I  am  not  going  to  o-ive  up 
that  Book  as  a  practical  guide  until  you  put  in  my  hands  a  clearer 
and  better  guide." 

Such  is  my  faith  in  the  Bible ;  and  I  say  to  every  young  man, 
"  If  you  read  from  m^re  curiosity,  or  simply  to  construct  a  system, 
you  do  not  know  anything  about  the  Bible.  Noi)ody  knows  any- 
thing abo'i^  it  until  it  is  to  him  what  a  chart  is  on  a  voyage,  or  what 
a  mediciuL-box  is  in  actual  sickness." 


266  THE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCBIPTVRE. 

When  a  doctor  is  called  to  the  bedside  of  his  own  sick  child,  he 
looks  at  his  medical  book  Avith  a  very  different  spirit  from  that  with 
which  he  studied  it  when  he  sat  in  the  academy  of  science,  and 
listened  to  lectures,  and  heard  about  the  relations  of  certain  parts 
of  the  human  body,  and  the  effects  of  such  and  such  medical  agents, 
and  the  significance  of  such  and  such  symptoms.  These  were  all 
abstract  matters  then  ;  biit  now  that  sickness  has  come  into  his  own 
house,  a  practical  question  presents  itself  to  him — namely,  "  How 
shall  I  meet  this  tide  of  fever?  What  shall  I  do?"  He  is  in  the 
wilderness,  and  there  is  no  counselor  nor  friend  near.  He  has  noth- 
ing to  consult  but  his  book.  And  how  differently  he  goes  to  that 
book  from  Avhat  he  did  when  he  Avas  simply  studying  medicine.  It 
is  his  child ;  and  if  there  is  any  succor  he  must  find  it.  Now  he 
reads  for  a  purpose  ;  and  how  sharply  he  reads,  lest  he  may  commit 
a  mistake  !  And  when  he  has  cured  her,  with  what  confidence  he 
goes  to  his  neighbor's  children  when  they  are  sick  of  the  same  dis- 
ease !  And  after  he  has  succeeded  in  curing  them  also  by  following 
the  same  directions,  he  says,  "Talk  against  that  book  of  medicine? 
I  tell  you  it  has  carried  me  through  many  difficult  places," 

It  is  the  medicating  power  of  the  Bible  that  gives  it  its  value.  I 
do  not  ignore  its  beautiful  historical  statements;  these  things  are 
admirable;  but.  it  is  in  the  wisdom  and  power  of  God  to  the  salva- 

/  tion  of  a  man's  innermost  self,  thatits  worth  consfstsT'  It  is  its  se- 
cret power  on  conscience,  and  faith,  and  hope,  ^i^'nlcnow  about  the 
Bible  ;  they  have  felt  it ;  and  that  is  clear  evidence,  and  evidencs 

\  that  cannot  be  taken  away  from  them. 

'~^  What  scenes  this  old  Bible  has  been  through  !  It  has  been  full- 
ed, and  fulled,  and  fulled,  as  no  woolen  cloth  was  ever  fulled.  It 
has  been  smelted  as  no  steel  was  ever  smelted.  It  has  been  cast, 
sometimes  into  shot,  and  sometimes  into  shell,  and  sometimes  into 
pikes  on  chevaux-cle-frise.  It  has  been  brought  into  requisition  on 
many  a  battle-field.  It  has  been  used  as  artillery  and  against 
artillery.  Councils  have  been  divided  about  that  Book.  It  has 
been  sacked  and  ransacked.  And  yet  it  stands.  And  it  is  a  uni- 
versal blessing.  It  is  the  poor  man's  Book.  It  is  the  slave's  Book. 
It  is  the  sorrowing  widow's  Book.  When  anybody  is  in  distress, 
there  is  something  in  that  Book  Avhich  he  wants  more  than  any- 
thing else  in  the  world.  It  is  because  that  Book  touches  all  the 
fundamental  experiences  of  men,  dropping  below  all  conventional 
thoughts  and  feelings,  and  blessing  them  in  the  very  soul,  that 
they  cling  to  it ;,  and  as  long  as  there  is  a  man  in  trouble,  and  the 
Bible  touches  him  as  nothing  else  can — as  long  as  the  crying 
race  of  mankind  need  sympathy  and  succor,  and  it  comes  to  them 


THE  IN8PIBATI0N  OF  8CEIFTUEE.  267 

from  this  source — so  long,  say  what  you  please,  that  Book  will 
stand.  But  it  will  stand,  not  by  reason  of  its  texts  or  its  miracles, 
but  by  reason  of  its  inward  lii'.  I  do  not  dishonor  its  external 
elements,  or  its  machinery,  (I  shall  have  more  to  say  about  these 
herfeafter)  ;  but  its  authority  and  inspiration  stand  i  v  this,  that 
it  is  a  Book  design -^d  to  touch  the  heart,  the  conscience,  the  Avhole 
moral  nature,  leading  a  man  up  into  nobler  manhood,  and  out  of" 
this  life  into  a  blessed  immortality,  TThere  I  say  this  Book  is  inex- 
^Trgnabte"""^        "^ 

Timeet  men  -v  do  not  believe  John  wrote  John't  Gospel. 
Well,  what  matters  it  whether  he  did  or  not  ?  There  is  a  forest  in 
England,  ii  is  said,  which  William  the  Conqueror  planted  ;  but 
what  do  1  care  whether  he  planted  it  or  not  ?  If  I  can  ride 
through  it,  why  should  I  care  who  planted  it  ?  There  are  the  trees 
and  there  i>  the  shad  and  if  I  can  only  enjoy  the  benefits  of  them, 
that  is  enough. 

Some  men  say  tl  't  thr  Psalms  of  David  are  not  inspired.  I 
will  not  now  dispute  whether  they  are  inspired  or  not  ;  but  I  know 
that  no  other  such  hymnals  ever  Avent  sounding  on  throuo-h  three 
thousand  years  of  the  world's  history,  developing  power  and  sweet- 
ness P"  they  went.  They  sang,  and  taught  the  world  to  sino-.  If 
they  ar  ■  net  inspired,  they  have  an  admirably  good  substitute  for 
inspiration. 

Men  tell  me  that  they  do  not  believe  Christ  was  any  thin  <>•  more 
than  n  man,  highly  organized  and  super-excited.  However  that  may 
be,  there  was  before  his  advent,  and  there  has  been  since,  no  such 
man  as  He  who  said  that  he  was  the  Brother  of  man  and  the  Son  of 
God  He  declared  that  he  came  into  the  world  to  reveal  to  us  that 
the  purest  and  the  be'st  was  he  that  had  the  most  compassion  upon 
the  impure  and  the  worst ;  he  taught  mankind  that  God  did  not  sit 

his  throne  like  Thor,  smiting  with  gigantic  hammer  on  the 
anvil  of  affairs,  but  that  the  heart  of  God  was  the  medicine  of  the 
world,  and  that  yet,  in  the  circling  ages,  God's  great  love  wherewith 
he  loved  the  race  should  redeem  tliem,  and  that  there  should  be  a 
new  heaven  and  a  new  earth  in  which  should  dwell  righteousness. 

Why  should  one  desire  to  put  away,  or  Ipwer  the  estimate  of  a 
Book,  in  which  lie  hidden,  as  in  a  range  of  mountains,  veins  of  o-old 
precious  stones ;  and  upon  which  grow  all  trees,  in  bennty  and  for 
fruit;  and  along  whose  sides  the  frcj  winds  forever  bring  health  am! 
joy  ? 


26S  THE  INSPIBATION  OF  8CEIFTUBE. 

PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

"We  rejoice  to  believe,  our  Father,  tliat  nround  about  thee,  in  heaven,  are 
only  the  rejoicing.  Upon  them  has  fallen  the  light  of  thy  face.  They  have 
seen  thee  as  thou  art.  They  are  transformed  into  thine  imaae.  In  heaA^en 
is  perfect  joy,  growing  with  grooving  capacity.  And  yet,  though  thou 
rejoicest  in  thine  own,  and  art  at  home  with  them  there,  (hou  art  not 
absorbed  to  the  forgetting  of  those  who  are  afar  off.  Wherefore  hast  thou 
dispersed  the  works  of  thine  hand  to  the  uttermost, to  forget  them?  Thou 
art  nourishing  the  universe;  and  the  things  which  are  remotest  and  furthest 
from  their  end,  and  which  through  ages  are  growing  toward  it  are  still 
watched  of  thee. 

"What  is  the  sovereign  plan  which  thou  art  pursuing,  none  may  know. 
We  cannot,  by  our  thoughts,  solve  what  thou  art  in  thy  greatness.  Nor, 
when  we  follow  thy  worlis  are  we  able  to  comprehend  all  thy  meanings. 
But  we  believe  that  thou  art,  by  thy  will,  overruling,  governing,  bringing  to 
pass  events,  and  that  all  are  tending,  according  to  some  sovereign  law  of 
thine,  to  their  final  good ;  and  that  of  all  things— even  those  that  are  furthest 
from  thee,  and  most  unlike  thee,  as  well  as  the  least— are  under  thy  direc- 
tion. Thou  hast  taught  us  that  the  sparrow  shall  not  fall  to  the  ground 
unnoticed.  The  most  insignificant  things  are  still  remembered.  Yea,  in 
their  perishing  there  is  a  use,  and  a  reason.  No  wanton  fate  disports  over 
all  the  earth.  God  rules.  Thou  art  in  heaven  Father;  and  thou  art 
throughout  the  universe  Father,  to  those  who  can  know  thy  Fatherhood. 
Thou  art  Governor  and  Guide ;  and  thou  art  fashioning  all  things  according 
to  the  purpose  of  thy  will.  And  we  rejoice,  when  we  are  able  to  read,  and 
when  the  lore  of  the  universe  is  stretched  out  as  a  scroll  before  us.  And 
when  we  shall  be  able  to  read  in  lines  of  living  light  all  thy  thought,  and  all 
thy  designs,  and  the  history  of  all  things  that  are,  then  shall  we  rejoice  more 
than  we  can  now— yea,  we  shall  rejoice  with  a  joy  that  is  unspeakable  to  any 
human  tongue.    And  then,  thou  wilt  be  God  over  all  to  us,  blessed  forever. 

We  rejoice  now  in  the  faith  of  these  things.  We  believe  that  the  sun 
shall  rise,  when  we  see  the  twilight  of  Jie  morning  melting  into  growing 
light.  Though  we  do  not  see  the  sun,  we  believe  in  the  glory  of  the  future. 
Though  we  may  not  on  earth  behold  its  realization,  we  believe  that  thou  art 
ruling  in  the  heaven,  and  governing  on  the  earth,  and  carrying  out  thy  great 
purpose  of  recuperating  mercy.  We  believe  that  yet  all  the  earth  shall  see 
thy  salvation,  and  rejoice  in  thee.  Thou  hast  permitted  us  to  labor  in  the 
kingdom  of  the  Lord  Jems  Christ.  Thou  hast  permitted  us  to  serve  thy 
cause,  upheld  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  renewing  our  strength  from 
day  to  day.  Thou  hast  taught  u6  what  is  high  and  what  is  low,  and  given  us 
a  desire  for  more  and  more  perfect  attainments.  Thou  hast  granted  unto 
us  more  experience  of  love  from  year  to  year,  and  a  stronger  wish  tbat  others 
should  be  participants  of  it.  And  we  beseech  of  thee,  O  Lord,  that  thou  wilt 
accept  our  thanks  that  we  have  had  this  knowledge  of  thee  revealed,  not  by 
the  letter,  but  by  the  Spirit. 

Thou  hast  commanded  us  to  make  known  to  all  those  who  are  around 
about  us,  that  which  we  have  learned  of  thy  divine  nature.  We  are  to 
be  witnesses  not  only  in  a  well-ordered  life,  but  also  in  speech,  to  our 
feliow-men,  of  the  mercy  and  goodness  of  God,  and  of  salvation  through 
Jesus  Christ.  Thou  hast  called  us  workers  together  with  thee— fi-llow- 
laborers.  Thou  art  inspiring,  and  we  are  working.  And  we  are  prepared  to 
spread  abroad  the  knowledge  of  thy  word.  Everywhere  thou  hast  taufiht 
thy  people,  not  to  live  alone  for  the  things  which  they  see,  and  not  to  be 


THE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCniFTUEE,  2G9 

benevolent  alone  in  respect  to  the  tilings  which  are  before  them.  Thou  hast 
taught  them  to  lay  the  foundations  of  this  land  in  truth  and  lustice.  Thou 
hast  taught  them  to  build  institutions  whose  blessings  shall  go  on  doing  their 
work  in  after  times.  Thou  hast  given  them  foresight  to  judge  and  plan,  not 
only  for  the  things  which  pertain  to  the  social  economy  of  life,  but  also  to 
the  things  ^Vhich  relate  to  the  spiritual  welfare  of  this  nation.  Yea,  thou 
hast  said,  Tht  field  is  the  world.  Thou  hast  taught  us  that  all  men  are  our 
brethren  Thou  hast  opened  our  hearts.  And  we  desire  that  men  may  be 
gathered  in  to  know  Christ,  whom  to  know  aright  is  life  eternal. 

We  thank  thee  that  in  days  gone  by  thou  hast  inspired  humble  men,  and 
men  mighty  of  faith,  and  sent  them  forth  in  their  wisdom,  and  etiabled  them 
to  bear  persecution  when  it  was  heaped  upon  them,  and  given  them  strength 
to  withstand  opposition  when  it  came  in  their  way  We  thank  thee  that 
thou  hast  caused  the  truth  to  be  mighty,  that  thou  hast  overruled  the  powers 
of  ttiis  world,  that  thou  hast  given  a  knowledge  of  Christ  to  every  land  by 
the  hand  of  tby  faithful  servants,  that  thou  art  gathering  churches  every 
where,  and  that  thy  truth  is  being  made  known  even  in  the  howling  wil- 
derness. 

We  thank  thee  for  all  thy  promises  which  respect  the  future.  They  stand 
like  stars  in  the  horizon ;  and  brightly  they  shine  through  the  nigtit  of  our 
fear  and  doubt.  Lord,  when  wilt  thou  come  and  bring  to  pass,  in  the  full- 
ness of  their  glory,  all  the  delayed  promises  of  thy  Word?  When  wilt  thou 
gather  in  Jew  and  Gentile?    When  shall  all  the  earth  see  thy  salvation? 

We  pray  for  all  the  great,  outspread  race  of  man.  We  pray  that  the 
nations  which  are  strong  may  use  their  strength  for  the  civilization  of  those 
that  are  weak  and  not  for  their  destruction.  We  pray  that  thou  wilt 
restrain  the  greediness  of  national  ambition  and  avarice,  and  that  thou  wilt 
increaje  the  desire  of  nations  for  fellowship  and  brotherhood.  Bless  all  the 
tendencies  toward  a  better  feeling  among  nations.  Accept  our  thanks  for  all 
the  events  of  our  time  which  portend  a  closer  unity,  and  kinder  relations 
between  nations.  Bind  together  the  strong  nations  for  the  sake  of  the  weak. 
And  we  pray  that  all  the  power  of  our  civilization  may  be  put  under  those 
that  are  in  barbarism,  to  lift  them  up.  May  commerce,  in  all  its  dealings 
with  mankind,  seek  to  enlighten  them,  and  raise  them  higher  in  the  scaie  of 
being.  We  pray  that  religion  itself  may  go  forth  commissioned  by  thee  to 
break  fetters  and  to  open  prison  doors.  We  beseech  of  thee  that  revolutions, 
as  God's  mighty  ploughings,  may  break  through  the  crust,  and  turn  up  the 
soil  to  the  air  and  sun,  that  all  those  good  things  which  men  desire  and 
seek  may  be  realized.  May  they  be  as  John  Baptists,  stern  and  acerb, 
before  the  sweet  and  gentle  invitations  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  And  we 
pray  that  the  time  may  come  when  we  shall  more  and  more  see  that  the 
nations  of  the  earth  are  coming  together,  and  that  all  peoples  and  tongues 
under  the  heaveu  are  speaking  one  language  of  sympathy,  and  love,  and 
benevolence. 

And  we  pray  that  thy  kingdom  may  come  everywhere.  Let  those,  to-aay, 
who  are  preaching  the  Gospel  in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  feel  thy 
blessing  descend  upon  them.  And  as  thou  dost  gather  up  the  moisture  from 
the  ocean,  to  be  swept  by  mighty  winds  upon  continents  afar  off,  and  to 
bring  forth  HoAvers  and  harvests,  so  may  the  prayers  that  go  up  from  the 
lips  of  thy  servants  descend  in  blessings  upon  distant  places.  Remember 
the  congregations  that  worship  in  the  wilderness  to-day.  Remember  those 
travelers  in  the  wilderness  who  withhold  their  progress  to-day.  and  gather 
around  about  them  their  wives  and  childi'en,  and  renew  their  consticration 
to  thee.  Be  with  those,  who,  to-day,  upon  the  sea,  endeavor  to  worship 
God,  whether  they  be  in  the  midst  of  storm  or  calm.    Draw  near  to  all  that 


270  THE  INSPIBA  TION  OF  SCBIPTUEE. 

are  afar  off,  and  that  remember  the  sanctuary,  and  that  pine  for  it.  Be  near 
to  those  who  are  sick,  or  are  tried  in  heart.  Be  aear  to  all  that  are  in  trou- 
ble and  walk  in  darkness.  Be  near  to  the  needy.  O  God  of  love  and  com- 
passion, look  down  to-day  upon  the  destitute  households  of  thine  own  dear 
ones.  Grant  thy  blessing  to  rest  upon  those  who  know  thee,  and  upon  those 
who  know  thee  not ;  upon  those  who  obey  thee  and  serve  t  ice,  and  upon 
those  who  are  disobedient  and  wandering.  Gather  in  Jew  and  Gentile,  and 
fill  the  whole  earth  with  thy  glory.  And  to  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the 
Spirit  shall  be  praise  evermore.    Amen. 


PRAYER  AFTER  THE  SERMON. 

Our  Father,  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  thy  blessing  to  rest  upon  the 
word  of  truth  which  has  been  spoken.  We  pray  that  we  may  be  k^pt  from 
every  extreme;  that  we  may  be  kept  under  the  influence  of  thy  good 
Spirit;  that  we  may  be  kept  in  the  way  of  all  truth;  that  we  may  not  be 
impatient  and  arrogant,  and  think  that  we  know  all  things.  We  know  but 
little.  And  may  we  be  humble  before  both  God  and  men  in  viev  of  that 
great  void  of  knowledge  which  our  ignorance  make".  Grant,  we  pray  thee, 
that  we  may  take  thy  word,  not  from  curiosity,  and  not  for  the  conflict  of 
jarring  sects  or  parties,  but  secretly,  silently,  into  our  hungry  souls  as  food. 
May  we  take  it  as  the  medicine  of  God  for  our  ailments.  May  it  be  as  the 
staff  of  life  to  us,  that  we  may  lean  on  it.  Miy  it  be  a  lamp  lit  in  troublous 
and  uanaerous  ways,  <;o  that  we  may  guide  our  steps  by  it.  May  we  under- 
take to  live  by  thy  word.  And  so  may  we  read  it,  to  know  what  is  God's 
thoujiht  of  man's  nature  and  character,  and  what  is  God's  heart  and  will 
and  wish  coLCfrning  us ;  and  so  may  we  draw  nearer  to  our  interior  self, 
growing  more  honest  and  reverent,  and  coming  nearer  and  nearfr  to  thee, 
whom  by  searching  we  cannot  find  out.  Thus  may  we  live  under  the 
shadow  of  thy  word  until  we  are  lifted  up  to  that  better  knowledge  of  its 
tree  of  life,  which  grows  by  the  river  of  life,  in  the  heavenly  land.  And  to 
thy  name.  Father,  Son  and  Spirit,  be  the  glory,  forever  and  ever.    Amen. 


XV. 

Practical  Ethics  for  the  Young. 


PEACTICAL  ETHICS  FOR  THE  YOTJM. 


"  Therefore  every  scribe  which  is  instructed  unto  the  kingdom  of  heaven, 
is  like  unto  a  man  that  is  a  householder,  which  briugeth  forth  out  of  his 
treasure  things  new  and  old." — Matt.  XIII.,  53. 


The  Scribes  were  the  teachers,  the  professional  ministers,  of  the 
Jewish  economy.  They  had  grown  to  be  learned  and  important. 
Our  Lord  himself  was  regarded  as  a  kind  of  Scribe  by  tlie  common 
people.  He  was  ranked  among  the  Rabbis.  And  he  says  that 
a  Scribe,  well  instructed,  is  like  a  householder  who  brings  forth 
things  new  and  old.  Thai  is,  a  good  teacher  must  be  very  hospit- 
able. He  must  seek  constant  variety.  He  must  bring  forth  the  best 
things  that  his  house  affords — things  new  and  old. 

Some  delicacies  are  better  by  reason  of  age.  Some  should 
be  fresli  as  fruits  newly  gathered.  Whichever  thing  is  the  most 
relishful,  whichever  will  most  show  the  kindness  of  the  house- 
holder, he  should  bring  forth.  And  those  who  instruct,  accordino-to 
the  example  of  Christ,  are  sometimes  to  give  parables,  and  sometimes 
didactic  instruction.  Now  it  shall  be  a  net  cast  into  the  sea,  repre- 
senting the  kingdom  of  God.  Or,  it  shall  be  some  discourse  of  the 
flowers.  It  shall  be  that  which  is  best  for  those  to  whom  one 
addresses  himself. 

The  whole  circuit  of  human  life  should  be  gone  aroiind  by 
him  v/ho  is  to  instruct,  that  he  may  bring  forth  out  of  God's  Word 
something  that  shall  aid  men  in  all  their  relations  and  chano-ino- 
conditions.  And  it  is  to  be  things  neto  and  old  ;  that  is  to  say,  the 
best  things,  whether  they  be  new,  or  whether  they  be  old. 

From   time   to   time,  therefore,   I   feel  it  incumbent   upon   me 

to  address  remarks  to  the  young,  and  those  who  are  -not  so  youno- 

to  the  young,  because  they  are  laying  the  foundatioms  of  life  ;  and 
to  those  who  are  older,  in  order  that,  with  such  instruction  as  they  re- 
ceive, they  may  influence  their  families.  It  may  give  light  toparents. 
It  may  enable  guardians  to  help  their  wards.     So  a  discourse  which 

Sunday  Evening,  Dec.  17,  1871.    Lcssoa :    Eccl,  XII.    Hymns  (FlTmouth  CoUeo 
tioo) :  Nos.  367,  816, 1294. 


274  PRACTICAL  ETHICS  FOB  THE  YOUNG, 

relates  to  the  simplest  truths  that  belong  to  youthful  life  may  be  a 
discourse  which  is  not  without  profit  to  those  who  are  advanced  in 
years.  And  I  propose  to-night  to  bring  forth  things  new  and  old, 
but  particularly  old  things — matters  that  pertain  to  the  welfare 
of  the  young. 

I  shall  urge  a  series  of  particulars,  no  one  of  which  is  any  novelty, 
but  all  of  which  are  of  transcendent  importance. 

First.  I  urge  upon  the  young  the  formation,  as  early  as  possible, 
of  some  definite  Purpose  of  Life  toward  which  they  may  address 
their  thoughts  and  all  their  preparations.  An  aimless  life  can 
scarcely  be  other  than  a  comparatively  useless  one.  It  certainly 
cannot  be  other  than  a  wasted  or  wasteful  life  to  live  only  to  fulfill 
the  pleasures  of  to-day  ;  to  disconnect  to-morrow  from  the  present ; 
to  disintegrate  the  years ;  to  live  for  spots,  and  single  days.  There 
can  be  no  strength  in  such  a  course  as  this.  Experience  teaches  us 
that  those  wlx)  have  lived  for  a  purpose,  have  concentrated  their 
enersjies  earlv  in  life,  and  have  aimed  at  something  definite — if  not 
a  distinct  thing,  yet  a  thing  in  some  definite  direction  ;  and  have 
thus,  by  having  a  purpose  in  their  mind,  cast  off"  irrelevant  matter, 
and  pressed  right  forward,  either  to  station,  or  to  character,  or  to 
power,  or  to  wealth,  or  to  whatever  has  been  the  end  which  they 
proposed  to  themselves.  He  can  scarcely  be  said  to  be  fairly  born 
who  has  not  some  direction  laid  out  along  which  he  means  to  f)ress 
with  all  his  energy.  Manhood  is  not  born  at  birth.  It  is  the  mind 
that  is  born,  and  not  the  body.  The  manhood  lies  deep  within  ; 
and  it  is  oftentimes  after  many  years  that  that  birth  comes  which 
goes  to  make  character. 

An  end  toward  which  the  whole  of  our  life  shall  move  should 
early  be  taken.  How  early  will  depend  upon  the  circumstances  in 
which  persons  are  placed.  Some  are  ripe,  or  proximately  ripe, 
earlier  than  others ;  but  in  every  case  there  should  be  something 
which  a  man  lives  for.  A  man  should  aim  at  something,  even  if  it 
be  not  that  which  at  last  he  will  attain.  I  know  that  in  youth  we 
select  unwisely,  through  inexperience.  Nevertheless,  it  is  better  to 
'seek,  through  one  or  two  years,  that  which  afterward  we  abandon, 
than  to  live  an  aimless  life.  If  the  child  tliinksthat  he  will  grow  up  a 
merchant,  if  he  figures  to  himself  a  life  of  commerce,  it  may  be 
that  he  will  become  a  lawyer  or  a  physician  when  he  is  better  in- 
formed ;  nevertheless,  it  will  be  better  for  him  to  have  aimed,  for 
one  or  two  years,  at  commercial  life,  than  to  have  had  no  purpose. 
For,  life  is  disheveled,  it  is  disconnected — and  so  powerless,  it  is  as 
sand  without  cohesion,  unless  there  is  some  end  toward  which  it  is 
striving.      There   are   thousands  of  men   who   have   failed  of  the 


PEACTICAL  ETHICS  FOB  TEE  YOUNG.  275 

purposes  of  life,  not  because  they  were  vicious,  not  because  they  be- 
came criminal,  not  because  they  were  not  clever  in  many  respects, 
but  because  there  was  nothing  toward  which  they  aimed.     There 
are  many  men  who  are  very  genial  and  companionable,  who  say 
many  things  that  are  worth  one's  heai'ing,  and  do  many  things  that 
ai*e   creditable,  but  who,  after  all,  never  prosper.    They  go  through 
life  always  exciting  wonder  among  men  that  there  should  be  so 
much  in  a  man,  and   that  he    should    come    to  so    little.      Their 
life  is  like  a  harness,  all  the  parts  of  which  have  been  unbuckled 
from  their  fellows,  and  which  are  so  many  separate  straps  heaped 
up  in  a  room.     Unless  they  be  put  together  and  placed  on  the  horse, 
he   cannot   draw.       There  are  multitudes  of  men  who  were  never 
harnessed  in  their   life.      They   are   bearing  nothing.      They   are 
aiming  in  no  direction.     They  are  running  around  in  cii'cles  of  tran- 
sient thought  and  feeling.     They  are  changing  their  purjDOses  con- 
tinually, and  are  never  doing  much,  and  are  never  doing  it  rery 
well.     The  only  thing  which  they  accomplish  effectually  is  at  length 
dying;  and  let  us  hope  that  they  will  have  a  better  chance,  and  that 
they  will  reap  the  advantage  of  their  experience,  in  the  other  life. 

Simply  to  think  of  this  matter  is  not  without  its  profit,  even  if  your 
thoughts  are  not  so  wise  as  they  might  be.  You  say,  "  How  can  I 
tell  what  I  should  be  ?"  Even  to  ask  the  question  is  of  advantage 
to  you.  To  make  it  a  matter  of  thought  is  of  itself  an  advantage 
to  you.  But  to  have  no  purpose  in  life  whatever ;  to  live  each  day 
simply  for  that  day — scarcely  anything  could  be  worse  than  that. 

Secondly.  So  far  as  your  own  prosperity  is  concerned,  I  may  urge 
Industry  and  Enterprise.  There  are  some  who  need  no  stirring  up 
to  industry.  It  is  a  matter  of  course  with  them.  They  have  a  love 
of  activity  which  will  scarcely  fail  to  make  them  industrious.  Mo- 
tion and  accomplishment  are  more  grateful  to  them  than  to  adi- 
pose and  abdominal  issued  men  is  rest  and  indolence.  They  go  tick- 
ing and  keeping  time  all  through  their  lives,  sometimes  saying  that 
they  do  it  from  a  sense  of  duty ;  but  they  do  it  because  they  can- 
not help  themselves. 

Others  have  had  habits  of  industry  put  upon  them  because  they 
had  an  even-handed  father,  and  a  sensible  and  sagacious  mother. 
Sometimes  the  circumstances  have  been  such  as  compelled 
every  mouth  that  ate  to  create  something  to  eat.  Blessed  is  that 
household  which  makes  every  child  feel  that  something  of  the  pros- 
perity of  the  family  depends  upon  its  industry.  Let  them  not  think 
that  they  have  escaped  from  unprofitable  bondage  to  a  larger  lib- 
erty, who  have  not  been  boi-n  in  a  family  where  they  are  under  the 
necessity  of  working.     Such  families  are  the  ones  that  make  men. 


276  FBAGTICAL  ETHICS  FOB  TEE  YOVKG. 

Such  circumstances  are  the  ones  that  carve  out  the  features  of  a 
noble  manhood. 

There  are  some,  too,  who  are  by  a  sense  of  duty  held  to  industry. 

NoAV,  there  is,  perhaps,  in  the  majority  of  cases,  as  much  time 
wasted  as  there  is  profitably  used,  if  you  count  all  the  time  that  men 
absolutely  throw  away — and  that  is  not  a  little.  In  nothing  are 
men  so  prodigal,  in  nothing  is  there  so  little  economy  practiced,  as 
in  the  use  of  time,  if  you  count  all  the  time  that  is  misdirected — and 
that  is  as  good  as  thrown  away.  If  a  man  discharges  his  rifle  with- 
out a  ball,  and  wastes  his  powder,  it  is  no  worse  than  if  he  discharges 
it  with  a  ball,  and  misses  the  mark  ;  and  if  a  man  throws  away  his 
time,  or  squanders  it  on  unprofitable  objects,  it  is  no  worse  than  if 
he  uses  it  unskillfully,  so  that  it  brings  in  nothing.  He  that  sows 
chaff  sows  that  which  will  bring  back  nothing ;  and  he  who  sows 
good  seed  on  soil  that  will  not  take  it,  does  no  better  than  if  he  had 
not  sown  any  seed.  Unproductiveness  is  as  bad  as  indolence.  As 
a  man  is  miserly  of  his  money,  and  wants  every  dollar  bringing  in 
interest,  whether  it  be  day  or  night,  whether  it  be  summer  or  win- 
ter, so  men  should  economize  and  be  miserly  of  faculty,  and  time, 
and  desire,  that  every  part  of  them  should,  as  it  were,  be  out  at  in- 
terest and  be  productive. 

This  does  not  imply  that  a  man  should  be  so  harnessed  to  the 
affairs  of  life,  and  so  industrious  as  to  be  absolutely,  and  literally, 
and  only,  a  worker ;  for  relaxation  is  oftentimes  more  productive 
than  work  itself.  There  be  those  who  attempt  to  augment  business 
by  cheating  their  sleep  ;  but  nature  always  asserts  her  rights.  There 
be  those  who  undertake  to  perform  tasks  without  any  intermediate 
relaxation ;  but  amusements  and  relaxations  are  the  very  things  that 
make  our 'hours  profitable.  For  he  who  carves  so  steadily  that  he 
has  no  time  to  sharpen  his  knife,  works  with  a  dull  tool,  and  cannot 
make  much  headway.  A  man  to  succeed  well  needs  to  keep  his  tools 
in  order ;  and  a  good  mechanic  does  not  think  that  the  time  is  wasted 
which  has  been  spent  in  sharpening  his  tools.  The  grindstone  pre- 
pares his  instruments  for  better  work.  And  so  rest  and  recreation 
crive  an  edo-e  to  men's  faculties,  and  prepare  them  better  to  pursue 
their  tasks. 

This  is  the  very  idea  of  amusement.  It  is  not  simply  something 
that  affords  enjoyment ;  it  is  something  which  prepares  a  man  to 
perform  his  graver  and  more  important  duties;  and  it  is  to  bo 
measured  by  Avhat  it  does.  It  is  harmful  if  it  hinders  a  man  from 
these  things ;  and  it  is  beneficial  if  it  helps  a  man  in  these  things. 
Ordinarily,  men  have  time  enough  for  converse,  time  enough  for  re- 
laxation, and  time  enough  for  amusement,  even. 


PRACTICAL  ETHICS  FOE  THE  YOUNG.  277 

But  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases  industry  is  not  a  thing  stu- 
died, persistent,  regulated,  organized.  Most  of  us  make  but  a  very 
poor  use  of  our  time.  The  greater  number  of  men  in  this  world  will 
have  only  that  which  they  can,  as  it  were,  work  out  by  dint  of  per- 
severing industry.  And  if  a  child  have  rich  parents  he  ought  to  be 
taught  how  to  work;  because  riches  take  to  themselves  wings  and  fly 
away.  Your  observation  and  mine,  as  well  as  the  experience  of 
people  generally,  teaches  us  that,  certainly  in  this  land,  no  one  ha8 
a  right  to  suppose  that  he  can  live  without  learning  how  to  work. 

The  old  Jews  had  this  proverb  among  the  many  wise  things  that 
they  had :  "  He  that  brings  up  his  son  without  a  trade  brings  him 
up  to  steal."  If  a  man  have  never  so  large  a  fortune,  it  is  the  great- 
est misfortune  that  can  happen  to  his  children  not  to  learn  how  to 
■work.  But  however  it  may  be  with  the  children  of  the  thriving 
and  the  prosperous,  in  regard  to  the  great  majority  of  young  men, 
it  is  certain  that  there  is  nothing  for  them  in  life  except  that  which 
they  work  out  with  their  hands,  fertilized  by  their  brains.  You 
must  make  your  own  fortune.  Nobody  will  die  and  leave  it  to  you. 
It  will  be  a  rare  occurrence  if  that  shall  take  place. 

Whenever  a  paragraph  appears  in  the  newspapers  to  the  eficct 
that*  William  Orton,  whose  business  heretofore  has  been  to  black 
shoes,  has  inherited  from  his  uncle,  who  recently  died  in  Ireland, 
twenty  thousand  pounds  sterling,  how  many  fools  sit  on  the 
egg  and  addle  it,  wondering  if  some  uncle  is  not  going  to  die  for 
them,  and  saying  to  themselves,  "  What  would  you  do  if  you  had  a 
hundred  thousand  dollars  ?"  How  many  men  would  rather  have 
money  that  came  to  them  without  tasks  and  sweat  in  it  to  solidify 
it  and  cement  it !  How  many  there  are  who  are  expecting  some 
luck  or  chance  to  smile  upon  them  !  But  in  respect  to  ninety-nine 
men  in  a  hundred,  it  is  true  that  they  will  have  just  that  which  they 
can  extract  by  skill  and  industry,  and  for  the  most  part  that  which 
they  can  extract  by  manual  labor.  And  I  say  to  every  young  Amer- 
ican citizen.  Do  not  be  afraid  or  ashamed  of  work.  Do  not  think 
you  are  unfortunate  because  you  have  been  born  where  you 
are  obliged  to  work.  Yow  belong  to  the  mass  of  mankind.  There 
is  need  of  the  work  of  your  hands.  Yoiu*  Saviour  was  a  carpenter, 
and  toiled.  All  through  the  years  of  his  youth  and  young  manhood 
he  wrought.  And  in  that  respect  his  example  is  not  to  be  forgotten. 
Do  not  count  it  a  hardship  that  your  circumstances  compel  you  to 
labor.  Do  not  forever  make  your  way  in  life  more  difficult  by  mourn- 
ing over  your  trade.  I  dislike  to  hear  a  mail  say,  '*  I  have  a  hate- 
ful business,  and  I  would  get  out  of  it  if  I  could  !"  The  mariner 
wants  to  stay  on  shore,  and  the  man  on  shore  wants  to  go  to  sea. 


278  FBACTICAL  ETHICS  FOU  THE  YOUNG, 

The  mason  wants  to  be  a  carpenter,  and  the  carpenter  wants  to  be  a 
mason.  The  doctor  wishes  he  had  been  a  lawyer,  and  the  lawyer 
wishes  he  had  been  a  minister,  and  the  minister  wishes  he  had  been 
anything  else.  Men  find  fault,  and  burden  themselves  with  their 
complaints  respecting  their  avocations  in  life. 

Now,  whatsoever  you  have  in  the  providence  of  God  been  callea 
to,  accept.  That  is  the  meaning  of  the  injunction,  Tn  whatsoever 
state  you  are,  therewith  be  content :  not,  however,  without  aspira- 
tion,  and  not  without  the  power  of  going  out  of  it.  But  go  out  of 
it  as  plants  go  out  of  pots,  not  for  the  sake  of  being  shifted,  but  be 
cause  they  have  filled  the  pots  with  their  roots,  and  the  gardener 
Bays,  "  They  must  have  room."  So  fill  up  the  place  where  you  be- 
gin in  life  that  there  is  not  room  for  you,  and  that  you  will  have  to 
be  shifted.  Whenever  a  man  is  wanted  in  any  place,  he  does  not 
have  to  hunt  for  it,  but  it  comes  after  him.  There  is  a  call  all  the 
time  for  men  who  are  competent  to  go  higher  and  to  do  better. 
Real  honest  working,  contented  working,  manly  working,  productive 
working,  is  coming  to  be  more  and  moi-e  in  demand. 

Nothing  is  more  shameful  than  for  an  American  to  be  ashamed  of 
work.  Do  not  be  ashamed  to  carry  your  own  bundle,  or  trundle 
your  own  wheel-barrow  ;  but  do  be  ashamed  if  you  are  on  the  edge 
of  beggary,  and  you  go  about  with  lily-white  hands,  and  do  nothing. 
Do  not  study  to  see  how  you  can  do  the  least  and  get  the  most. 
Plave  an  honest  sense  of  exchanges.  Aim  to  give  a  fair  equivalent 
of  thought  or  of  work  for  every  advantage  that  you  expect,  or 
would  possess.     Do  not  economize  in  work. 

There  is  a  tendency  among  the  working  classes  to  shorten  hours. 
I  sympathize  with  it — and  I  abhor  it.  I  sympathize  with  it  as  far  as 
it  is  one  of  the  symptoms  that  men  mean  to  be  intelligent,  and  that 
they  mean  to  rise  in  the  scale  of  life  ;  but  I  abhor  it  in  so  far  as  it  is 
tending  to  make  men  feel  that  working  is  not  a  good  thing  for  them, 
and  that  they  ought  to  get  more  money  for  fewer  hours'  service — that 
is  to  say,  that  they  must  shift  the  score  of  equivalents,  and  enlarge 
and  augment  in  their  profits.  I  do  not  believe  that  for  a  thousand 
years,  in  this  nation,  the  common  people  are  going  to  carve  out  in- 
dependent fortunes  by  collusions,  or  combinations,  or  anything  of  the 
kind.  I  believe  that  if  they  do  it,  they  are  going  to  do  it  by  hard 
knocks,  and  a  good  many  of  them,  continued  through  so  many  hours 
in  a  day.  Our  fathers  laid  the  foundations  of  our  prosperity, 
and  gave  us  the  little  capital  on  Avhich  we  are  trading ;  and  they 
wrought  through  early  and  late  hours,  and  were  not  afraid  of  the 
noonday  sun  ;  and  their  children, must  learn  the  lesson  that  they  are 
to  work  long  and  hard  if  they  are  going  to  extract  from  under  the 


FBACTICAL  ETHICS  FOE  THE  YOUNG.  279 

ribs  of  nature  that  wliich  is  to  be  fortune  to  them.     Do  not  be  afraid 
of  working,  and, if  need  be,  of  working  long  and  hard. 

For  onej  I  should  be  glad  to  see  wages  paid  by  the  hour,  and  men 
sellinor  their  time  by  retail,  and  not  by  wholesale,  that  there  might 
be  an  end  to  this  vexatious  jangle  about  eight  or  ten  hours  a  day; 
but  if  men  think  that  eight  hours  are  going  to  be  all  that  is  neces- 
sary to  enable  them  to  gain  a  livelihood  and  establish  themselves  in 
life,  I  think  they  are  very  much  mistaken.  My  impression  is  that 
there  are  very  few  men  among  the  laboring  classes  of  society  who 
can  achieve  in  eight  hours  daily  that  which  will  keep  them  fore- 
handed, and  enable  them  to  educate  their  children,  and  leave  their 
families  higher  than  they  found  them. 

We  must  therefore  have  a  better  thought  about  work.  It  must 
not  seem  to  us  ignominious.  I  hear  a  great  deal  said  about  workmen 
and  workingmen.  Politicians  say  a  great  deal  about  them.  They 
are  praised  very  much  in  the  papers.  And  God  forbid  that  I,  who 
came  from  the  loins  of'  a  whole  generation  of  workingmen,  that  I^ 
who  have  the  blood  of  saddlers  and  blacksmiths  in  my  veins,  should 
not  have  an  interest  in  workingmen ;  but  I  would  a  great  deal  rather 
hear  you  talk  about  work  than  about  workingmen.  In  this  day  and 
age  of  the  world,  praise  in  this  matter  should  be  such  as  to  make 
men  willing  to  bend  their  backs  in  work,  and  to  give  them  an  appe- 
tite for  it. 

Bring  up  your  children,  then,  to  feel  that  they  must  work  early, 
and  skillfully,  and  intelligently,  and  continuously,  and  that  by  work 
they  must  make  themselves  independent,  laboring  with  their  hands, 
that  they  may  have,  as  the  apostle  says,  "  Something  to  give  those 
who  are  in  need." 

Do  not  expect  a  legacy.  Do  not  expect  a  division  of  your  father's 
estate.  Be  honorable.  Be  manly.  Cultivate  a  spirit  of  independ- 
ence. Be  proud  that  you  are  working  out  your  own  fortune.  There 
is  a  pride  which  is  ignominious ;  and  there  is  a  pride  which  is 
honorable.  I  love  to  hear  a  man  say,  and  I  honor  a  man  Avho  says, 
standing  respected  and  strong  in  life,  "  I  am  not  indebted  to  for- 
tune for  my  property.  I  earned  it  by  the  sweat  of  my  brow.  I 
baptized  every  dollar  of  it."  Money  so  consecrated  by  honest  work 
usually  stays  by  a  man — and  it  usually  has  a  man  to  stay  by. 

Thirdly.  Rely  on  yourselves.  Do  not  rely  on  luck.  "  But  do  you 
believe  in  luck  ?"  Oh  yes,  I  believe  in  it — of  course  I  do.  "  Well, 
then,  why  not  rely  upon  it  ?"  He  that  had  a  good  father  and  mother, 
had  good  luck.  He  whose  father  and  mother  whipped  him  enough, 
had  good  luck.  He  whose  father  and  mother  would  not  let  him  have 
his  own  way  in  his  lower  faculties,  and  compelled  him  to  use  his 


280  PBACTICAL  ETRICS  FOE  TEE  TOUNG. 

higher  ones,  had  good  luck.  He  who  has  a  good  appetite,  and  good 
digestion,  has  good  luck.  He  who  rises  early  and  toils  late,  and 
never  thinks  of  anything  except  that  which  belongs  to  him,  and 
which  he  has  fairly  earned,  has  good  luck.  The  man  who  does  not 
quarrel,  has  good  luck.  The  man  who  by  his  kindness  makes  every- 
body about  him  like  him,  has  good  luck.  Good  faculties  with  good, 
habits  induced  on  them  are  good  luck..  This  is  the  kind  of  good 
lm;k  for  a  man  to  seek  after.  I  never  knew  a  man  that  wanted  to 
shirk  all  through  life  that  had  good  luck.  I  have  known  men  who 
Avere  lazy,  and  tattered,  and  drove  their  cow  to  pasture  in  the  morn- 
ing (not  being  much  more  intelligent  than  she),  and  shuffled  back 
again,  wishing  the  dew  was  not  so  wet,  and  wishing  they  could  find 
^  quarter  of  a  dollar,  which  they  never  did  find — except  one  man 
that  I  know  of,  who  found  what  he  thought  was  a  quarter,  and 
turned  it  in  his  hand,  and,  seeing  that  it  was  an  old  Spanish  eighteen- 
and-three-quarter-cent-piece,  said,  "If  anybody  else  had  found  this, 
it  would  have  been  twenty-five  cents  !"  1  have  known  shiftless 
men  who  were  forever  hunting  for  good  luck,  but  who  never  found 
it.  Luck  is  in  vigor.  Luck  is  in  courage.  Luck  is  in  good  hard 
sense.  Luck  is  in  work.  Do  not  trust  to  any  other  luck  than  this. 
The  fool's  luck,  lottery  luck,  good-fortune  luck,  superstitious  luck — 
do  not  trust  to  that.  If  there  is  any  luck,  it  is  in  the  heart,  in  the 
head,  in  the  hand. 

Fourthly.  Let  me  iterate  what  you  have  heard  so  often  at  home — 
the  necessity  of  economy  and  frugality.  How  unhappy  are  they 
who  are  brought  up  in  such  abundance  that  they  never  know  what 
economy  is  !  Even  wealth  ought  to  teach  children  economy  and  fru- 
gality. And  good  and  sensible  wealth  does.  It  is  not  simply  for 
the  sake  of  earning  that  economy  and  frugality  are  desirable — al- 
though they  are  a  means  of  earning.  In  this  country  a  man  who 
knows  how  to  save,  will  just  as  surely  be  well  ofi"  before  he  dies,  if 
he  does  not  die  too  quick,  as  the  sun  shines.  How  many  of  the 
swart  and  plodding  Germans  have  I  seen  in  the  West,  who  started 
to  go  there  with  only  just  enough  money  to  pay  their  passage  and 
land  them  in  the  forests  of  Indiana,  Avho  for  one  year  went  around 
doing  errands — sawing  wood  and  the  like — and  living  on  what  the 
careless  Hoosiers  threw  away.  Their  food  was  so  cheap,  and  their 
raiment  was  so  carefully  worn,  that  the  cost  of  their  living  was  very 
slight.  To  be  sure,  they  lived  in  a  squalor,  oftentimes,  which  we 
could  not  endure ;  but  they  saved  the  earnings  of  the  year  almost 
entirely,  scarcely  spending  a  dollar  on  themselves.  And  in  the  course 
of  two  yeai'S  they  had  laid  up  enough  money  to  enable  them  to 
enter  a  quarter-section  of  land.    Then  they  hired  a  man  to  "  deaden" 


FEACTICAL  ETHICS  FOE  THE  YOUNG,  281 

ten  acres,  and  fence  it,  while  they  went  back  to  the  towns  and  cit'es 
to  earn  money  with  which  to  pay  for  it,  still  living  on  food  which 
was  coarse,  but  very  abundant  and  very  cheap.  They  were  very 
,  frugal  in  all  their  expenses  ;  and  in  the  course  of  five  years  they  had 
some  twenty  acres  cleared  on  their  sixty-acre  patch,  a  little  log 
house,  a  little  barn,  a  little  wife,  a  little  child,  and  a  little  money ; 
and  they  were  frugal,  thrifty  farmers.  I  have  seen  it  time  and  time 
again.  In  from  five  to  ten  years  men  that  came  over  without  a 
penny  were  erected  into  independent  citizens,  owning  their  farms, 
and  having  enough  land  fenced  and  cleared  to  raise  the  crops  which 
they  needed. 

Even  in  the  most  compact  and  closely-populated  portions  of  the 
East,  he  that  will  be  frugal,  and  save  continuously,  living  every  day 
within  the  bounds  of  his  means,  can  scarcely  help  accumulating. 
Do  you  ask  me  if  I  think  this  is  a  worthy  object  to  press  upon  peo- 
ple for  life  ?  I  do.  If  a  man  will  not  do  anything  higher  than  that, 
there  is  a  vast  moral  benefit  in  his  aiming,  by  frugality,  to  make 
himself  independent  of  his  fellows.  But  then,  consider  what  the 
moral  meaning  of  economy  and  frugality  is.  A  man  that  is  frugal 
and  economical  is  self-governing.  His  eye  begs  him  every  day,  and 
he  says,  to  his  eye,  "  No."  His  ear  pleads  every  day  for  indul- 
gence, and  he  says,  "  No."  His  tongue  supplicates  him,  saying, 
"  Indulge  me,  indulge  me ;"  and  he  says,  "  Thou  must  be  obedient. 
Thou  shalt  not  have  this."  Every  inch  of  his  skin  pleads  for 
some  license;  and  he  says,  "  No."  And  amusements  say,  "  Give  us 
the  day;"  and  he  says,  "  I  will  not  spare  the  day."  Pleasures  and 
and  temptations  of  various  kinds,  a  thousand  influences,  come  round 
a  man,  beseeching  him  to  gratify  their  demands;  and  he  says,'  "I* 
have  laid  out  my  plan,  and  I  will  not  depart  from  it.  I  will  save." 
And  there  is  a  continuous  process  of  self-government  going  on 
within  him.  He  is  all  the  time  governing  his  thoughts,  checkino- 
his  desires,  restraining  his  inclinations,  putting  down  inordinate 
pi-ide  and  vanity,  and  denying  his  appetites  and  passions. 

This  may  be  carried  too  far,  and  it  often  becomes  miserish ;  but 
it  is  ah  abuse  of  a  good  thing  ;  and  in  this  habit  of  frugality  and 
economy  there  is  a  world  of  moral  benefit. 

I  have  had  my  eyes,  for  ten  years  past,  on  a  plain,  simple,  wiry 
little  Irishman.  He  earned  his  twenty-five  dollars  a  month.  He 
laid  it  up  by  littles,  and  by  littles.  He  did  not  drink.  He  did  not 
indulge  himself  in  any  form  of  vice.  He  worked  hard  for  his 
money.  I  know  it,  because  I  paid  it  to  him.  He  saved  it.  He 
finally  bought  himself  a  lot,  and  paid  for  it  out  of  his  earnings.  He 
built  him  a  house  on  it,  and  furnished  that  house.     He  now  lives  on 


282  FEACTICAL  B TRIGS  FOB  THE  TOUNG. 

one  floor  himself,  and  lets  two  floors,  and  is  a  landlord.  He  has 
nearly  paid  for  his  house.  And  he  has  done  this  by  frugality  and 
economy. 

I  have  watched  this  man.  I  have  gloried  in  that  slow  and  steady 
foundation  which  he  was  laying,  and  on  which  he  now  stands  with 
his  wife  and  five  little  childi-en.  These  children  are  all  going  to 
school,  and  nobody  will  know  whether  they  were  born  of  Irish  blood 
or  of  Anglo  Saxon.  When  once  they  have  gone  through  the  com- 
mon schools  of  America,  they  will  stand  up  American  citizens  ;  and 
they  will  be  heard  from.  Here  is  a  foundation  of  prosperity  es- 
tablished in  persevering  labor,  and  in  frugality  and  economy,  in  the 
father. 

I  know  a  mechanic  who  twelve  years  ago  had  barely  the  means 
to  purchase  the  smallest  amount  of  stock.  He  had  scarcely  enough 
for  a  single  job.  I  know  that  to-day  he  owns  four  or  five  houses. 
I  know  that  his  business  brings  him  in  an  ample  support.  I  know 
that  he  has  become  one  of  the  most  robust  and  steadfast  of  the  citi- 
zens of  the  village  where  he  lives.  He  is  thoroughly  prosperous. 
And  it  is  industry  and  frugality  that  have  brought  this  about. 

I  think  that  a  young  man  who  places  before  himself,  not  a  specu- 
lation, not  a  fortune,  but  some  object  that  he  means  to  achieve ; 
who  selects  a  particular  piece  of  property  that  he  would  like 
to  own — some  piece  of  real  estate,  some  lot  of  ground,  or  some 
acre  of  land,  or  some  house — and  aims  steadily  at  acquiring  it, 
and  works  diligently  for  it,  and  saves  for  it,  will  be  almost  sure 
to  succeed.  I  will  not  say  that  every  young  man  in  a  city  can  do 
it;  though  many  might  do  it  here,  either  through  the  instrumen- 
tality of  a  building  association  where  there  is  one,  or  independently 
where  such  an  association  does  not  exist.  And  when,  at  last,  hav- 
ing toiled  and  waited  patiently,  the  debt  is  paid,  and  the  piece  of 
property  is  earned,  he  is  a  great  deal  richer  than  the  assessor  knows 
him  to  be.  The  assessor  goes  around  and  puts  a  valuation  upon  his 
property  for  the  purpose  of  taxing  it.  But  ah  !  those  habits  of 
industry  and  self-control;  those  wise  measurings  which  we  call 
economy — all  these  the  man  gained  over  and  above  the  property. 
He  has  saved  himself  from  a  thousand  temptations.  He  has  protect- 
ed himself  against  remorseless  vices  which  would  have  gnawed  out 
his  marrow.  And  though  you  call  it  merely  amassing  property,  it 
may  be  amassing  manhood.     It  is  one  step  on  the  upward  way. 

How  many  hundreds  and  thousands  of  men  there  are  who  never 
rise  high  because  their  life  is  unorganized;  because  they  will  not 
work — or  because,  if  they  do  work,  they  squander;  because  they 
will  not  apply  the  means  which  they  have  with  reference  to  the 


PRACTICAL  ETHICS  FOB  THE  TOUNG.  283 

I 

economy  and  perpetuity  of  their  life.      There  is  a  moral  reason, 
therefoi'e,  for  economy  and  frugality. 

I  think  there  is  a  shame  about  this  matter.  If  I  recollect  right, 
I  used  to  have  it.  It  used  to  come  very  hard  for  me,  when  I  was  a 
boy  and  traveling,  to  be  obliged  to  sit  down  and  calculate,  to  a 
penny,  whether  I  had  money  enough  to  take  me  from  this  city  to 
tJhat,  and  if  I  had,  to  calculate  how  much  would  be  left  over  and 
above  traveling  expenses,  and  how  much  I  could  affoi-d  to  pay  for  a 
tavern  bill.  I  did  not  like  it ;  and  though  I  did  not  know  why,  I 
felt  ashamed  of  it.  And  I  think  I  see  many  persons  who  feel  just 
as  I  did.  I  sympathize  with  them.  Young  men  do  not  like  to 
own  that  they  are  empty  in  their  pocket.  Young  men  dd  not  like 
to  come  to  New  York,  and  go  to  a  third  or  fourth  rate  public  house. 
They  do  not  think  it  is  becoming.  And  though  they  cannot  aftbrd 
it,  they  will  go  to  the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel,  or  to  the  St.  Nicholas,  if 
it  breaks  them.  They  are  ashamed  of  economy.  They  are  ashamed 
to  measure  their  place  and  condition  with  the  actual  amount  of  theii 
means. 

Fifthly.  Beware  of  false  pretences.  There  is  a  disposition  among 
young  men,  fostered  from  one  and  another  motive,  to  appear  rather 
than  to  he.  They  dress  better  than  their  circumstances  give  them  any 
right  to.  They  have  the  appearance,  therefore,  of  being  more  prosper- 
ous than  they  really  are.  They  coui-t,  and  seek  to  maintain  themselves 
in,  company  that  is  so  far  above  their  possible  means  that  it  cannot 
do  them  any  good.  They  are  ashamed  to  say,  "  I  am  poor,  sir,  and 
I  cannot  ride  with  you ;  I  am  poor,  and  I  cannot  accept  your  hospi- 
tality. I  will  not  accept  your  hospitality  as  a  pensioner,  and  I  can- 
not return  it  by  inviting  you  again ;  and  at  present  I  must  walk 
lower."  There  are  very  few  men  who  would  be  willing  to  look  into 
the  face  of  a  well-dressed  belle,  and  reply  to  her  invitation  by  say- 
ing, "  It  would  give  me  pleasure  to  be  in  your  company,  but  I  am 
in  slender  circumstances."  Oh,  confusion  !  Oh,  dismay  !  A  man 
would  rather  cut  his  right  hand  off,  almost,  than  do  that.  Men  will 
suffer  themselves  to  be  tempted  to  steal,  men  will  borrow  and  not 
know  how  to  pay,  in  order  to  go  with  those  that  are  above  them. 
Men  will  seek  by  all  manner  of  means  to  avoid  the  necessity  of 
seeming  just  what  they  are. 

Now,  it  is  not  shameful  that  a  man  who  is  beginning  is  just  be- 
ginning. It  is  not  shameful  that  a  young  man  who  is  the  child  oi 
poor  parents,  and  has  come  down  here  to  strive,  is  in  the  first 
of  his  strife,  and  has  not  plenty  of  money  to  spend.  We  ought  to 
expect  of  young  men  that  they  will  live  frugally,  and  plainly,  and 
accommodate    themselves    to   quarters  which    befit    their  circum- 


284  PB ACTIO AL  ETHICS  FOB  THE  YOUNG. 

stances.    By  and  by  it  will  be  time  enough  for  them  to  enlarge  their 
bounds. 

When  a  rich  man's  son  marries,  Oh,  he  is  the  darling,  the  pet  of 
the  family.  He  has  not  earned  the  property ;  but  his  father  has ; 
and  by  and  by  he  may  give  something  to  him,  though  he  has  not 
yet.  And  he  stays  at  his  father's  house,  with  his  wife.  Why  ? 
"  Oh,"  says  the  dear  mother,  "I  cannot  bear  to  have  him  leave  homl. 
He  cannot,  of  course,  afford  to  keep  house  in  any  such  style  as  that 
which  he  has  been  accustomed  to."  But,  dear  madam,  why  do  you 
not  let  him  take  his  brave  young  wife,  and  go  into  the  outskirts  of 
the  city,  and  hire  a  two-story  house,  at  a  moderate  rent,  and  live  ai 
a  cost  which  is  within  the  limits  of  his  salary  ?  Why  do  you  not 
let  him  begin  where  you  began,  and  have  the  pleasure  which  you 
had  of  working  up  step  by  step  ?  Try  these  children  ?  "  Ah,  Mr. 
Beecher,  you  do  not  know  what  it  is  to  part  with  children  in  that 
way.  I  cannot  bear  to  have  them  associate  as  they  have  not  been 
accustomed  to.  I  want  them  to  wait  till  their  circumstances  are 
such  that  they  are  able  to  take  a  house  across  the  way,  and  furnish 
it,  and  then  go  and  live  by  themselves."  Oh,  foolish  love !  Oh, 
misjudging  tenderness ! 

There  is  nothing  more  beautiful  in  this  world  than  to  see  the 
courage  of  a  girl  who  never  knew  want;  whose  mother  was  to  her 
what  beds  in  a  garden  are  to  flowers ;  on  whom  has  fallen  no  storm 
heavier  than  dew,  every  drop  of  which  was  love ;  and  whose  heart 
has  been  won  by  some  young  adventurer  who  can  bring  her  nothing 
but  himself,  and  his  great  love — which  is  fortune  enough.  When 
she  marries  him,  do  you  think  that  she  wants  equipage  ?  Do  you 
think  that  she  wants  estate?  There  is  a  heroism,  there  is  a  gloi-ious 
boldness,  there  is  self-sacrifice,  in  the  love  of  a  true  heart.  And  such 
a  newly  married  couple  would  be  proud  to  begin  in  poverty  to- 
gether, and  to  walk  up,  with  slow  but  sure  steps,  to  the  side  of  their 
elders.  Try  your  children.  There  is  more  of  this  in  them  than 
you  think. 

Sixthly.  Closely  connected  with  this,  let  me  speak  of  self-indul- 
gence, or  seeking  present  enjoyment  at  the  expense  of  future  good, 
and  caution  you  against  it.  It  is  not  wrong  for  you  to  enjoy ;  but 
there  is  a  time  for  everything ;  and  no  person  has  a  right  so  to  en- 
joy the  present  that  it  cheats  the  future.  That  is  what  we  mean  by 
self-indulgence.  Where  one  courts  ease  in  such  a  way  as  to  inter- 
fere with  his  prosperity ;  where  one  seeks  pleasures  of  appetite  in 
such  a  way  as  to  clog  and  block  up  his  path ;  where  one  has  such  a 
greed  for  pleasure  as  to  be  unable  to  wait  till  it  is  proper  for  him  to 
have  it;  where  one  puts  enjoyment  in  the  place  of  duty,  we  say  that 


FBAGTIGAL  ETEICS  FOB  TEE  YOUNQ.  285 

he  is  self-indulgent.  And  there  is  a  great  deal  of  self-indulgence  in 
very  pleasing  forms.  There  are  a  great  many  persons  who  are  well 
endowed  of  God,  but  who  will  never  do  anything  useful  in  life. 
They  are  not  gluttons  at  the  table.  Neither  are  they  given  to  idle- 
ness. But  they  are  self-indulgent  in  the  matter  of  reading.  I  have 
known  persons  to  sit  for  hours,  with  their  feet  mounted,  in  the 
morning,  reading  the  papers,  and  not  reading  for  a  purpose.  And 
then  they  would  betake  themselves,  after  a  little  circuiting  around 
the  house  or  grounds,  to  reading — reading  a  book — reading  a  novel. 
Then  they  would  go  to  dinner,  and  take  some  suitable  refreshment; 
and  afterwards  they  would  go  to  reading  again.  And  so,  day  in 
and  day  out,  they  would  be  found  reading — reading  omnivorously 
and  continuously :  not  that  reading  might  organize  knowledge  in 
them ;  not  that  they  might  be  strengthened  to  accomplish  a  pur- 
pose ;  but  for  the  same  reason  that  a  glutton  eats — because  they 
liked  it — because  it  was  pleasant.  Do  you  not  know  that  you  can 
be  self-indulgent  in  books  as  well  as  in  whips  and  custards  ?  A  man 
may  be  a  glutton  of  knowledge  as  well  as  of  food.  Thousands  of 
persons  would  be  shocked  to  hear  me  say  that  they  are  self-indul- 
gent people ;  but  they  are  self-indulgent  in  reading. 

There  are  persons  who  would  like  to  go  to  meeting  every  blessed 
hour  in  the  day.  They  would  like  to  be  sung  to  and  talked  to  from 
morning  till  night.  Oh!  it  is  so  pleasant  to  go  to  protracted  meet- 
ings, and  listen  all  day  to  exhortations,  and  wonderful  theories,  and 
exhilarating  music,  and  be  in  a  constant  state  of  excitement !  They 
want  to  go  to  meeting  in  the  morning,  and  in  the  afternoon.  They 
must  go  to  meeting. 

It  ill  becomes  me  to  dissuade  people  from  going  to  meeting ;  but 
do  not  you  suppose  that  a  man  can  be  a  glutton  of  religious  excite- 
ment ?  Persons  there  are  who  go  tagging  after  meetings  all  the 
time,  and  doing  nothing  themselves.     And  they  are  self-indulgent. 

There  are  many  ways  in  which  people  may  indulge  themselves 
without  indulging  their  appetites.  The  necessity  of  acting  under 
the  inspiration  of  duty  rather  than  of  pleasure,  is  one  of  those 
points  which  cannot  be  too  much  inculcated  in  the  family,  too 
much  enforced  in  the  school,  or  too  often  taught  in  the  pulpit. 
Do  not  do  the  things  that  are  pleasant :  do  the  things  that  you 
ought  to  do.  And  let  me  here  say  to  every  young  person.  If 
you  make  any  selection,  sort  out  the  things  which  you  like  to  do' 
the  least,  and  do  them,  and  do  them  from  day  to  day,  until  you 
have  broken  yourself  into  doing  the  things  which  you  do  not  like  to 
do.  If  anything  goes  against  the  grain  with  you,  do  not  shirk  it  on 
to  your  younger  brother ;  and  do  not  put  it  off.  Do  it  yourself,  and  do 


286  PBACTIGAL  ETHICS  FOB  THE  YOUNG. 

it  promptly.  If  there  is  anything  that  you  do  not  like  to  do,  go  at  it, 
and  stick  to  it  till  you  have  subdued  it,  or  until  it  has  ceased  to  be 
irksome  to  you.  In  that  way  you  will  derive  satisfaction,  and  even 
pleasure,  from  the  hardest  and  most  disagreeable  tasks. 

Seventhly.  Let  me  say,  "  In  all  your  gettings,  get  understand- 
ing." That  is  the  Bible  for  it ;  and  the  modern  vernacular  is.  See 
that  you  have  self-culture.  If  I  have  seemed  to  you  to  be  forever 
running  upon  externals,  it  is  because  externals  have  so  much  to  do 
with  internals.  While  you  are  maintaining  yourself,  and  enlarging 
the  foundations  on  which  your  household  is  built,  and  amassing 
property,  and  growing  influential  among  your  fellow-men,  remem- 
ber that  "  a  man's  life  consisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of  the  things 
which  he  possesseth."  You  are  not  rich  because  you  have  so  many 
farms,  or  so  many  houses,  or  so  many  bonds  and  stocks,  or  so  much 
money  out  at  interest.  You  are  rich  according  to  the  condition  of 
the  mind  that  is  in  you.  Therefore  see  that  all  your  labor,  all  your 
frugality,  all  your  aims,  tend  to  the  development  of  manhood  in 
you. 

There  is  one  sense  in  which  all  education  is  self-culture.  That 
is,  nobody  can  have  knowledge  pushed  into  him.  He  must  take  it 
in,  even  if  he  have  a  master  or  a  professor  all  to  himself.  Persons 
may  have  schools  and  masters  and  professors,  and  yet  not  be  edu- 
cated. But  I  hold  that  in  America,  at  the  present  time,  if  a  man 
grows  up  without  education,  it  is  his  own  fault.  There  is  a  school- 
master in  the  very  air.  There  is  a  schoolmaster  in  every  street.  A 
schoolmaster  waits  for  you  at  the  gate  of  the  ferry.  A  school- 
master goes  with  you  over  the  boat,  and  walks  with  you  on  the 
other  side.  There  is  a  schoolmaster  everywhere.  There  are  three 
schoolmasters  that  are  always  at  hand.  And  where  a  man  has  eyes 
to  see  with,  and  ears  to  hear  with,  and  a  tongue  to  ask  questions 
with,  it  is  his  fault  if  he  is  not  intelligent  in  this  world,  and  if  he 
does  not  grow  in  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  from  year  to  year. 
But  multitudes  seem  really  to  fulfill  the  old  prophet's  declaration : 
"Eyes  have  they,  but  they  see  not;  they  have  ears,  but  they  hear  not." 

There  are  men  who  will  go  down  Hicks  street  and  not  be  able 
to  tell  you  of  one  shop  that  is  there — and  there  are  some  very 
curious  shops,  and  some  very  queer  things,  in  Hicks  street.  They 
will  cross  Fulton  Ferry,  day  in  and  day  out,  without  looking  at  any 
of  the  horses  that  go  over.  They  do  not  know  whether  they  are 
big  horses  or  small  ones.  They  do  not  know  what  sort  of  harnesses 
are  on  them.  They  do  not  know  what  kind  of  wagons  or  carts  they 
are  hitched  to.  They  do  not  know  whether  there  is  anything  new 
in  the  carts  or  not.     They  have  eyes  to  see,  but  their  idea  of  the 


FBACTIGAL  ETHICS  FOB  THE  YOUNG.  287 

use  of  their  eyes  is,  that  they  are  to  count  money  with,  or  to  read 
ill  books  with.  But  the  best  books  are  out  of  doors.  There  are 
always  two-leggcul  books,  and  four-legged  books,  and  wheeled 
books,  that  may  be  road.  There  is  something  to  be  learned  from 
every  man  that  you  meet,  and  everything  that  you  see.  There  is 
not  one  of  these  books  that  it  is  not  worth  your  while  to  read.  But 
men  come  to  you,  and  you  will  not  talk  with  them.  There  is  that 
in  the  history  of  every  man  from  which  you  may  gain  instruction ; 
every  man  that  you  are  thrown  in  contact  with  is  sent  to  you  as  a 
teacher;  but  you  will  not  learn  from  him. 

Aspire  to  the  company  of  those  who  know  more  than  you  do. 
If  you  have  a  great  deal  of  vanity,  in  combination  with  certain 
other  qualities,  you  will  want  to  show  off  among  folks  who  are  your 
inferiors,  and  so  you  will  always  be  keeping  company  downward ; 
but  if  you  have  an  honest  upward-tending  pride,  see  that  you  have 
a  chance,  part  of  the  time  at  least,  to  associate  with  those  who  know 
more  than  you  do.  It  is  difficult  for  some  to  find  such  people  !  but 
they  are  to  be  found.  There  are  men  who  know  a  great  deal  more 
than  you  do.  And  their  conversation  ought  to  be  a  part  of  your 
education. 

Do  you  suppose  that  there  is  a  man  who  manufactures  any 
article  of  trade  who  has  not  some  secret  to  tell  you  ?  Does  he  not 
know  something  about  qualities  and  processes  which  it  is  worth  your 
while  to  know  ?  Nothing  goes  on  in  the  mill,  nothing  goes  on  in 
building,  nothing  goes  on  in  the  mine,  or  in  the  furnace,  which,  if 
you  have  an  opportunity,  you  ought  not  to  be  inquisitive  about. 
Look  at  clerks  in  dry-goods  houses.  I  am  astonished  to  see  how 
they  will  stand  in  shops  that  ai'e  perfect  bazaars  of  knowledge,  and 
know  nothing  about  the  articles  Avhich  they  contain.  There  are 
young  men  who  sell  fabrics,  and  who  are  utterly  ignorant  of  how 
they  were  manufactured,  on  what  kind  of  looms  they  were  woven 
when  the  looms  were  invented,  and  when  the  patterns  first  appeared 
in  the  market.  Multitudes  of  men  know  nothing  of  the  history  of 
the  stuff  that  they  deal  in.  They  have  a  perpetual  invitation  to 
knowledge  in  their  own  affairs,  but  do  not  heed  it. 

It  is  a  shame  to  have  eyes,  and  see  not ;  to  have  ears,  and  hear 
not;  to  have  a  tongue,  and  not  ask  questions.  Ask  questions — and 
refuse  to  ask  questions.  Never  ask  a  man,  "How  is  this?"  until 
you  have  puzzled  your  head  effectually  to  see  if  you  can  find  out 
without  asking.  If  there  is  a  piece  of  machinery,  study  it,  and  do 
not  ask  anybody  to  help  you  until  you  can  go  no  further,  and  then 
ask  questions.  Many  men  are  ashamed  to  ask  because  they  do  no1; 
like  to  show  their  ignorance. 


288  PEACTICAL  ETHICS  FOB  TEM  lOUNG. 

And  you  cannot  pay  too  much  for  knowledge.  Do  not  be 
ashamed  to  own  that  you  do  not  know  things  whtch  you  may  be 
supposed  to  know ;  for  that  way  lies  ignorance.  In  questions  lies 
knowledge.  Find  out  yourself  if  you  can,  as  the  best  discipline  and 
task  of  your  understanding ;  but  if  you  cannot  find  out  yourself, 
then  go  to  those  who  can  tell  you.  Do  not  let  anything  go  un- 
locked. Pick  every  lock  you  can  find — of  knowledge.  Pry  into  all 
things  that  belong  to  you  and  other  people  in  common.  And  so 
work  that  every  day  you  shall  come  back  with  some  gleanings — 
with  your  arms  full  of  sheaves. 

There  is  nothing  that  is  less  manly  and  less  worthy  of  you  than 
to  be  living  from  day  to  day  without  increasing  in  knowledge,  and 
growing  in  intelligence.  And  when  I  consider  how  many  books 
you  may  read,  and  how  many  newspapers  there  are  that  serve  you 
from  day  to  day  with  knowledge  fresh  from  all  parts  of  the  globe, 
I  am  amazed  to  see  how  listless  and  how  little  intelligent  most  per- 
sons are.  I  am  ashamed  of  them.  Knowledge  runs  to  and  fro,  and 
rings  at  their  doors,  and  begs  permission  to  instruct  them,  and  they 
live  an  innocent  and  silken  life,  feeble,  and  enjoy  a  little,  and  by 
and  by  are  snuffed  out,  and  disappear  like  smoke.  What  a  life  that 
is  to  live,  and  for  an  American  to  live,  with  all  the  opportunities 
and  all  the  urgencies  for  knowledge  which  exist  among  us !  So  do 
not  you  live.  If  you  have  been  living  so,  correct  your  life,  and 
begin  to  live  better  and  more  nobly. 

I  meant  to  speak  of  the  association  of  your  interests  Avith  the 
public  interests.  Let  all  your  industries  and  all  your  accumulations 
be  struck  through  with  your  generosity.  It  is  not  necessary  that 
you  should  grow  mean  and  poor  as  you  grow  strong  and  rich.  It 
is  quite  possible  for  you,  when  you  begin,  to  be  obliged  to  tighten 
the  surcingle  so  as  to  gird ;  but  when  you  begin  to  let  out,  and  to 
enlarge,  and  come  to  a  better  state,  you  ought  to  have  thoughts  as- 
sociating the  public  benefit  with  your  prosperity,  so  that  there  shall 
be  a  gilding  thrown  over  that  prosperity.  Let  the  generous  side  of 
your  nature  come  out,  and  not  the  acquisitive  side.  Do  not  let 
business  make  you  morose,  nor  selfish,  nor  mean  ;  but  study  how  to 
be  more  manly,  more  public-spirited,  in  the  conduct  of  your  affairs. 
There  is  such  a  thing  as  commonwealth.  There  is  such  a  thing  as 
loving  the  common  good.  Though  bad  men,  by  selfish  ways,  have 
almost  extinguished  faith  in  any  such  spirit  as  this,  there  is  such  a 
thing  as  a  man's  joining  his  prosperity  Avith  the  welfare  of  the  pub- 
lic, so  that  he  shall  be  conscious  all  the  time  that  while  he  is  thriv- 
ing the  community  thrives  by  reason  of  it. 
Trust  in  moral  influence.  Do  not  go  with  those  who  are  sharpers  in 


VB  ACTIO  A  L  E  TRIGS  FOB  TEH  YOUNG,  289 

practice  or  in  faith.  Believe  that  truth  is  better  than  lying.  Believe 
that  honesty  is  better  than  greediness.  Believe  that  true  politeness 
in  the  long  run  is  more  profitable  than  slipperiness.  Believe 
that  patient  walking  along  ways  of  industry  is  better  than  any  short 
cuts.  Believe  in  human  nature.  One  of  the  most  eminent  states- 
men in  Europe  declared  that  there  were  greater  blunders  and  more 
mistakes  made  in  distrusting  men  than  in  trusting  them.  Learn  to 
trust  men,  though  not  indiscriminately.  Have  confidence  in  human 
nature  and  moral  qualities. 

And  remember  that  you  are  not  to  heap  up  happiness  in  some 
future  day,  but  that  you  are  to  enjoy  life  as  you  go  along,  or  not  at 
all.  There  are  a  great  many  men  who  do  not  enjoy  themselves 
now,  but  who  hope  that  by  and  by,  when  they  can  take  ofi"  their 
taxation  of  industry,  and  get  more  time  to  study  at  home,  they  will 
be  happy.  They  think  that  when  they  have  amassed  property,  and 
can  have  leisure  to  enjoy  their  wife  and  children  and  domestic  feli- 
cities, living  as  they  want  to  live,  they  will  be  happy.  No,  they 
will  not. 

How  old  are  you  ?  Twenty-five  ?  Thirty  ?  Are  you  happy  to- 
day ?  Were  you  happy  yesterday  ?  Are  you  generally  happy  ? 
If  so,  you  have  reason  to  judge  that  you  will  be  happy  by  and  by. 
Are  you  so  busy  that  you  have  no  time  to  be  happy  ?  and  are  you 
going  to  be  happy  when  you  are  old,  and  you  have  not  so  much  to 
do  ?  No,  you  will  not.  You  now  have  a  specimen  of  what  you 
will  be  when  you  are  old.  Look  in  the  face  of  to-day.  That  is 
about  the  average.  That  will  tell  you  what  you  are  goino-  to  be. 
What  you  are  carrying  along  with  you  is  what  you  will  have  by 
aud  by.  If  you  are  so  conducting  yourself  that  you  have  peace 
with  God,  and  with  your  fellow  men,  and  with  your  faculties ;  if 
every  day  you  insist  that  duty  shall  make  you  happy,  and  you  take 
as  much  time  as  is  needful  for  the  culture  of  your  social  faculties 
you  will  not  be  exhausting  life,  and  it  will  be  continually  replenished. 
But  if  you  are  saving  everything  up  till  you  get  to  be  an  old  man, 
habit  will  stand  like  a  tyrant,  and  say,  "You  would  not  enjoy  your- 
self before,  and  you  shall  not  now,"  How  many  men  there  are  who 
have  ground  and  ground  to  make  money,  that  they  might  be  happy 
by  and  by,  but  who  when  they  get  to  be  fifty  or  sixty  years  old 
had  used  up  all  the  enjoyable  nerve  that  was  in  them  I  During 
their  early  life  they  carried  toil  and  economy  and  frugality  to  the 
excess  of  stinginess,  and  when  the  time  came  that  they  expected 
joy,  there  was  no  joy  for  them. 

Therefore  make  up  your  mind  to  carry  joy  with  duty,  and  every 
day  let  your  happiness  grow.    There  is  a  heaven  above  your  head 


290  PRACTICAL  ETRICS  FOB  THE  FOUNG. 

to-day,  as  much  as  there  will  be  forty  years  hence.  There  is  a  God 
who  loves  you,  and  who  Avill  care  for  you.  Have  a  heart  full  of 
vitality,  and  let  it  vibrate.  Be  in  sympathy  with  men.  Look  out 
cheerily  in  life.  Make  others  happy,  and  take  the  rebound  for  your 
happiness  as  you  go  along.  And  so  live  that  at  any  moment,  if 
God  should  call  you  to  an  account,  you  could  say,  "  Blessed  be  God 
for  the  enjoyment  of  life." 

And  do  not  put  oiF  happiness.  Make  sure  that  you  have  it  now, 
so  that  you  will  be  sure  of  having  it  by  and  bj'-.  Cultivate  those 
traits  which  yield  happiness.  Hope,  trust,  courage,  faith,  ought  to 
minister  happiness  to  everybody. 

Lastly,  all  these  ways  are  made  facile  and  cooperative  by  a  spirit 
of  trust  in  God.  Love  God,  He  is  your  Father.  Trust  him.  He 
is  your  bountiful  Benefactor.  Let  your  heart  go  out  to  him  from 
day  to  day.  And  think  of  him  as  One  who  will  go  with  you 
through  all  your  aifairs  in  life.  Think  not  of  him  as  so  stately  as  to 
be  lifted  above  your  common  necessities.  God  thinks  of  the  spar 
rows.  Not  one  of  them  shall  fall  without  his  notice.  His  heart  is 
open  to  you  from  day  lo  day.  Commit  yourselves  to  him.  Do 
uothino-  that  his  eye  may  not  look  upon.  Hope  in  him,  trust  in 
him  and  all  these  things  will  be  easy  to  accomplish  ;  whereas,  with- 
out faith,  and  without  a  true  and  manly  piety,  duties  will  be  hard, 
and  will  grow  harder  and  harder  as  life  wearily  wears  out  your 
forces.  He  that  trusts  in  God  shall  be  like  a  tree  planted  by  the 
rivers  of  water,  that  bringeth  forth  his  fruit  in  his  season.  His  leaf 
shall  not  wither.    His  roots  shall  know  no  drought. 


PBAOTICAL  ETHICS  FOB  THE  YOUNG.  291 


PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

We  thank  thee,  Almighty  God,  for  the  disclosure  of  thy  mercy.  We 
could  not  learn  what  thou  art  from  the  face  of  nature.  Thy  wisdom,  thy 
skill  and  thy  power  are  apparent ;  but  thy  goodness,  which  fills  the  heaven, 
is  made  known  to  us  by  holy  men  of  old,  speaking  as  though  they  were 
moved  by  the  Spirit.  But,  O  Lord  Jesus — thou  that  didst  descend  from 
heaven,  thou  that  art  gone  again  thither,  our  Saviour — we  rejoice  that  thou 
hast  made  us  to  know  the  innermost  heart  of  God,  that  thou  hast  taught  us 
the  divine  love,  and  that  in  it  is  the  power  of  time.  We  rejoice  that  by  love 
the  earth  shall  be  regenerated ;  and  that  men  shall  be  transformed  thereby 
into  the  image  of  God ;  and  that  we  shall  not  forever  dwell  in  this  sighing, 
groaning  world;  and  that  yet  from  heaven  we  shall  behold  it  ripeuing,  and 
lifted  up  far  above  the  things  that  torment  it  now ;  and  that  all  the  earth 
shall  see  thy  salvation.  Blessed  be  thy  name,  that  thou  art  gathering,  from 
generation  to  generation,  so  many  as  ripen  into  thy  grace.  Blessed  be  thy 
name  that  thou  hast  extended  the  knowledge  of  salvation  to  us,  and  that  so 
many  have  accepted,  by  faith,  the  love  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  are  en- 
deavoring to  walk  after  the  Spirit  and  not  after  the  flesh.  We  pray  for  more 
enlightenment;  but,  above  all,  we  pray  for  more  fidelity  to  that  light  which 
we  all  have.  We  pray  that  we  may  have  power  to  overcome  temptation, 
that  we  may  have  forgiveness  of  sins  wherever  we  have  fallen  into  transgres- 
sion ;  that  from  day  to  day  we  may  have  that  humble  faith,  that  access  by 
faith  and  love  to  thee,  which  shall  give  refreshment,  renewed  strength,  aspi- 
ration and  hope.  May  none  of  us  be  content  to  dwell  in  this  world  as  our 
home.  May  we  aspire  to  things  far  above  the  stroke  or  reach  of  time 
where  God  dwells  in  eternal  belssedness — God  working  forever  for  those  who 
are  outcast,  and  bringing  them,  sons  and  daughters,  home  to  glory.  Grant 
that  wc  may  be  inspired  to  nobler  thought,  and  better  labors,  and  wider 
spheres  of  knowledge. 

Grant  thy  blessing  to  rest  upon  this  worshiping  assembly  to-night.  Thou 
knowest  the  hearts  of  all  that  come  up  hither  and  bring  sorrows  or  bring  joys. 
Thou  knowest  the  wanderer,  and  thou  knowest  the  child  come  home.  Thou 
knowest  those  that  are  shaded  and  saddened  by  thy  providential  afflictions, 
and  thou  knowest  those  who  are  radiant  with  the  blessings  which  thou  hast 
caused  to  sparkle  upon  their  brow.  We  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  attune 
every  heart,  that  each  one  may  accept  now  the  portion  which  he  needs. 
May  every  one  feel  a  present  God.  May  every  one  feel  the  indwelling  of  thy 
Spirit.  May  every  one  have  such  hope  of  heaven  as  shall  enable  him  to  bear 
without  harm  the  prosperity  of  life,  and  without  discouragement,  its  adver- 
sities. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  thy  blessing  to  rest  upon  the  young.  May 
they  grow  up  in  honor,  in  virtue,  in  truth,  in  fidelity.  Grant  that  they  may 
make  better  men  and  citizens  than  we  have  done.  Grant  that  the  founda- 
tions may  be  established  by  them,  and  that  they  may  be  laid  more  and  more 
firmly  in  integrities.  We  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  thy  blessing  to  rest  upon 
our  whole  nation.  We  pray  that  intelligence  may  sp  read,  and  that  with  it 
there  may  be  a  love  of  truth,  and  justice,  and  purity,  and  manliness.  May 
those  who  are  outcast,  and  ignorant,  and  who  have  long  been  neglected,  be 
reached  by  the  rising  sun  of  knowledge.  We  pray  for  schools ;  and  we  pray 
for  those  who  are  teaching  them.  We  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  re- 
member those  who  are  teaching  far  away  from  home,  and  under  circum- 
stances of  discouragement,  and  even  of  obloquy.  Following  their  Master, 
may  they  be  willing  to  suffer,  and  rejoice,  to  spend  and  be  spent,  though  the 
more  they  love  the  less  they  are  loved. 


292  PB ACTIO AL  ETHICS  FOB  THE  YOUNG. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  thy  blessing  to  rest  not  upon  our  land 
alone,  but  upon  all  lands.  May  the  day  come  when  nations  shall  clasp  in- 
separable hands  of  friendship ;  when  they  shall  study  the  things  which  make 
for  peace ;  when  they  shall  seek  each  other's  good ;  when  the  strong  shall 
befriend  the  weak. 

Grant  that  all  ignorance,  and  all  superstition,  and  all  the  cruelties  which 
they  breed,  may  fly  away  as  evil  birds  of  night  before  the  rising  sun. 

We  pray  that  tyrannies  may  be  deposed ;  and  that  the  people  may  conte 
to  their  rights  which  have  long  been  withheld ;  and  that  thy  name  may  be 
honored  and  glorified  everywhere ;  and  that  songs  of  peace  and  joy  may  rise 
from  all  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

Even  so,  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  come  quickly.    And  to  thy  name  shall  be  the 
praise  forever  and  ever.    Amen. 


PRAYER  AFTER  THE  SERMON. 

Our  Father,  we  beseech  of  thee  to  bless  the  word  of  instruction  Which 
has  been  spoken.  Bless  it  to  all  that  are  young.  Bless  it  to  all  that  are 
rearing  the  young.  Bless  it  to  us  all.  If  we  have  had  in  our  parents  wise 
teachers,  if  our  feet  have  not  stumbled,  if  we  have  been  led  in  the  way  of 
prosperity,  may  we  recognize  the  bounty  of  God  through  our  parents,  and 
seek  to  impart  to  others  the  same  blessings  which  have  made  our  life  so  rich. 
We  pray  that  thou  wilt  accept  the  song  of  thanksgiving  which  we  shall 
raise.  Dismiss  us  with  thy  blessing  to  our  homes.  And  may  the  spirit  of  the 
Sabbath  go  with  us  through  all  the  days  of  the  week.  And  when  Sabbath3 
are  over,  take  us  to  thine  own  immortality  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 


XVI. 

The  New  Incarnation. 


INVOCATION. 

Be  gracious  unto  us,  this  morning,  our  Father,  according  to  the  multitude 
of  thy  mercies.  Look  not  upon  our  transgression.  Look,  rather,  upon  thine 
own  heart-love  and  kindness ;  and  out  of  the  abundance  of  thy  thoughts  of 
mercy  grant  that  we  may  be  enriched  this  day.  Grant  that  joy  and  glad- 
ness may  be  spread  from  heart  to  heart.  May  this  be  a  day  of  the  Son  of 
Man,  and  may  Christ  arise  in  every  heart,  and  shine  again  with  blessed 
coming  to  every  one  of  us.  We  pray  for  thy  strength  and  thy  divine  Spirit 
to  inspire  and  quicken  our  devotion,  and  assist  us  in  every  office  of  instruc- 
tion, and  guide  us  in  every  service  of  the  sanctuary,  and  breathe  joy  upon  us 
in  all  the  hours  of  the  day.  These  mercies  we  ask  in  the  name  of  the  Beloved, 
to  whom,  with  the  Father  and  the  Spirit,  shall  be  praise  evermore.  Amen. 
16. 


THE  NE¥  INCARIATIOI. 


"  And  they  shall  call  his  name  Emmanuel,  which,  being  interpreted,  is, 
Cod  with  us." — Matt.  I.,  33.  "  And  the  word  was  made  flesh,  and  dwelt 
among  us  (and  we  beheld  his  glory,  the  glory  as  of  the  only  begotten  of  the 
Father,)  full  of  grace  and  truth." — Jno.  I.,  14. 


The  mystery  of  the  Incarnation  will  never  be  solved  in  this 
world.  The  elements  comprising  it  lie  beyond  the  reach  of  the  hu- 
man intellect.  We  do  not  understand  the  nature  of  the  power  of 
spiritual  existence.  We  cannot,  therefore,  solve  the  problems  arising 
upon  the  statement  that  the  Spirit  was  made  flesh,  and  dwelt 
among  us,  and  was  of  us,  and  yet  not  of  us.  It  is  evident  that  in 
the  day  of  the  Saviour,  and  among  those  to  whom  the  message  first 
came,  there  was  no  difficulty,  because  they  accepted  it  as  a  fact, 
without  attempting  an  analysis — without  any  philosophical  inquisi- 
tion. And  so  it  still  is  easy  to  accept  the  statement.  In  all  our 
childhood  we  believe  that  God  was  manifest  in  the  flesh,  and  that 
Jesus  Christ  was 'God  on  earth — Emmanuel — God  with  us.  And  in 
all  the  earlier  stages  of  youthful  Christian  experience  our  thoughts 
gather  around  about  that  sacred  center,  and  our  hearts  are  drawn 
out  with  gratitude  and  with  love  ;  and  the  recurring  anniversaries 
bring  joy  and  gratulation,  and  not  trouble.  It  is  only  afterward, 
when  we  begin  to  ponder  how  the  infinite,  which  is  a  distinguishing 
mark  of  God,  could  be  compassed  by  the  finite ;  it  is  only  when  we 
begin  to  read  the  articles  of  faith  which  have  been  propounded  by 
the  church  of  past  ages,  and  are  told  that  Christ  had  two  souls — 
one  a  man's,  and  the  other  a  God's,  and  that  they  coexisted,  and 
were  mingled,  each  retaining  its  identity — it  is  only  then  that  Ave 
have  difficulty.  And  on  turning  to  the  Word  of  God  we  find  no 
light.  There  we  find  simply  the  statement  which  our  childhood 
believed,  that  God  was  manifested  in  the  flesh  ;  that  he  took  upon 
fiim  our  nature  ;  that  he  lived  on  earth  under  the  same  conditions 
which  we  do,  and  died,  and  went  home  to  glory.  But  we  accepted  this 

A  Christmas  Sermon.    Sunday  Morning,  Dec.  24, 1871.    Lesson  :  Matt.  II.  Hymns 
(Plymouth  CoUection) :  Nos.  328,  306,  203. 


296  TEE  NEW  INCARNATION. 

Btatement  without  analysis ;  without  philosophical  illustration  ;  with- 
out raising  any  question  as  to  how.  We  can  believe,  if  we  do  not 
undertake,  according  to  modern  ideas,  to  interpret  the  details  of  the 
divine  nature,  and  of  that  economy  which  we  celebrate  to-day  of 
the  advent  and  incarnation.  We  do  know  that  the  coming:  of  God 
upon  earth  had  reasons  of  benefit  which  we  cannot  discern.  If  we 
look  at  the  thing  itself,  and  ask  to  know  exactly  how  the  event 
Dould  be,  we  shall  get  darkness,  and  not  light. 

But  if,  accepting  the  event,  without  attempting  to  understand 
all  its  parts  and  particulai's,  we  inquire  whether  there  was  benefit 
from  such  a  dwelling  of  God  on  earth  among  men,  which  makes  it 
probable  and  easy  to  believe,  then  we  do  find  light.  Such  an  earthly 
residence  of  Divinity  among  men  would  impart  to  us  far  more  influ- 
ential views  of  God  than  could  have  been  obtained  by  any  other 
method.  God  as  revealed  in  nature  men  more  or  less  understood. 
They  believed  in  him  as  the  Governor  of  nations,  and  as  a  tutelary 
god  of  a  single  or  special  nation ;  but  God  as  moving  among  men 
in  all  the  offices  of  human  life,  revealed  under  labor,  and  care,  and 
suffering ;  revealed  as  one  familiar  in  affectional  and  social  relations 
and  interlacing  himself  with  men's  thoughts  and  aflinilies  as  man 
does  with  man ;  revealed  as  Emmanuel,  God  with  us,  like  us,  dwell- 
ing among  us — that  was,  if  I  may  so  say,  a  domestic  revelation — a 
revelation  of  disposition  rather  than  of  attribute.  The  self-sacri- 
ficing spirit,  the  suffering  spirit,  the  interposition  of  one's  own  self 
for  another  that  deserved  the  stroke — these  are  revelations — not  by 
words,  but  by  deeds — and  are  calculated  to  kindle  in  the  soul  a 
notion  of  God's  personality  and  of  his  loveableness  which  could 
scarcely  be  imagined  to  come  to  the  human  race  in  any  other  way. 

We  may  point  to  the  results  which  have  followed  the  incarna- 
tion, as  a  revelation  of  God's  nature,  in  comparison  with  the 
former  kinds  of  piety  which  prevailed  in  the  Jewish  church,  as  an 
authentication  of  these  reasonings.  For,  although  there  were  among 
the  Jews,  here  and  there,  one  by  one,  Isaiahs,  and  Jeremiahs,  and 
Davids,  and  such  like  characters,  that  shot  far  above  ordinary  men, 
and  that  were  held,  not  simply  in  reverence  and  fear,  but  also  in  love 
and  admiration,  as  genial  and  noble,  the  great  body  of  the  Jewish 
people  never  attained  to  this  plane.  It  is  in  Christian  eras  that  we 
find  a  new  style  of  piety :  not  sacrificial  service ;  not  formal  obe- 
dience ;  but  a  passionate  personal  love,  and  an  enthusiastic  faith. 
We  find  a  kind  of  piety  under  Christ  which  became  a  victorious 
faith  among  men.  It  was  an  entirely  different  style  of  apprehending 
the  divine  natui-e  and  the  divine  character,  following  what  we  have 
said  would  be  likely  to  be  the  effect  of  an  incarnation — a  manifesta- 


TUE  NE  W  INCABNA TION,  297 

tion  in  the  flesh — as  a  mode  of  revealing  God's  interior  and  domestic 
disposition. 

Before  God's  nature  was  disclosed  by  Jesus  Christ,  while  yet  he 
was  regarded  as  a  Monarch,  and  not  as  a  Father,  there  were  not 
wanting  teachings  of  his  compassion  to  the  poor  and  lowly ;  but 
they  were  the  teachings  of  the  noblest  natures.  They  never  became 
a  common  matter  of  instruction  or  belie£ 

After  Christ  came  and  dwelt  among  men,  and  suffered  for  them, 
and  rose  again  to  rule  over  them,  he  became  an  object  of  the  in* 
tensest  admiration  and  affection,  and  of  the  most  passionate  love,  not 
BO  much  among  the  intelligent,  not  in  the  loftiest  natures,  but  in  the 
lowliest.  As  he  was  himself  poor,  and  lived  among  them,  and  came 
for  them — that  is,  for  the  great  mass  of  mankind  ;  so,  after  the  times 
of  the  apostles,  it  was  chiefly  among  the  poor  that  there  broke  out 
.that  intense  love  for  God  and  for  holiness  which  was  never  known 
before  among  the  masses.  Among  the  slaves ;  among  the  pris- 
oners ;  among  those  who  were  shut  up  as  a  testimony  of  their 
fidelity  to  their  moral  convictions ;  among  men  who  were  in  des- 
pondency, who  were  oppressed,  who  were  ignorant;  among  all 
wnth  whom  the  world  went  hard ;  among  those  from  whose  hands 
riches  were  slipping,  or  from  whom  health  was  departing ;  among 
those,  in  other  words,  who  were  low  in  every  sense — among  all 
those  there  was  found  an  intense  conception  of  God's  power,  and 
mercy,  and  personal  love.  And  they  clung  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
with  a  peculiar  affection,  such  as  we  do  not  find  developed  toward 
Jehovah. 

If  it  were  therefoi-e  in  the  order  of  time,  in  the  course  of  de- 
velopment, the  purpose  of  God  to  make  known  his  love  and  mercy 
and  grace  through  Jesus  Christ,  we  see  how  wise,  in  the  fulfillment 
of  that  purpose,  was  the  divine  economy. 

Dismissing,  then,  any  attempt  to  understand  how  God  should  be- 
come clothed  in  the  human  body ;  accepting  the  statement,  and  re- 
joicing in  it  as  the  wisest  and  most  probable  solution  of  the  ques- 
tion, How  can  men  come  near  to  God  ? — let  us  believe  that  nearly 
two  thousand  years  ago  there  lived  in  Galilee  for  many  years,  One 
who,  being  equal  with  God,  had  subjected  himself  to  the  whole 
human  condition,  from  its  lowest  weakness,  through  the  process  ot 
evolution,  to  its  fullest  manhood  ;  that  for  men  he  suffered ;  that  for 
men  he  lived ;  that  in  himself  he  revealed  to  men  the  truest  concep- 
tion of  the  divine  nature  that  the  world  has  ever  seen,  or  that  it  can 
receive;  and  that  having  fulfilled  his  mission,  he  went  up  again,  and 
stands  to-day  a  Prince  and  a  Saviour  at  the  right  hand  of  God. 

But  we  are  not  to  dismiss  the  advent  and  the  incarnation  simply 


298  THE  NE  W  INGAENA  TION. 

with  this  historic  statement.  The  disciples  were  taught  that  the  per- 
sonal Christ  would  be  withdrawn  from  them ;  that  the  Lord  was 
to  go  away  out  of  the  world  because  it  was  best  for  them — best  for 
them  as  representatives  of  the  church  universal.  But  at  the  same 
time  they  were  taught  that  he  never  would  leave  the  world ;  that 
he  would  abide  in  it. 

**I  am  with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world." 

There  was,  in  other  words,  taught  to  them  what  might  be  drawn 
out  and  called  substantially  the  doctrine  of  the  secondary  incarna- 
tion :  not  precisely  a  personal  incarnation,  but  something  which  may 
very  well  be  considered  a  new  fulfillment  of  the  first  one. 

This  is  a  thought  which  may  engage  our  attention  this  morning 
— the  secondary  and  plenary  incarnation  of  God  among  men. 

As  much  as  ever,  God  is  in  the  world  by  wisdom,  by  power,  by 
government,  and  by  providence  ;  but  there  is  such  a  thing  as  the- 
growth  of  men  themselves  into  the  divine  Spirit ;  or,  as  the  apostle 
styles  it,  Christ  in  you  the  hope  of  glory. 

Besides  the  coming  and  the  incarnation  of  Christ  as  a  grand  cen- 
tral, historical  fact,  two  thousand  years  ago,  we  may,  without  any 
great  stretching  of  the  literal  language  of  Scripture,  teach  that 
Christ  is  still  coming  in  every  generation,  that  a  process  of  incar- 
nation is  ever  going  on,  that  the  Christ  Spirit  is  growing  in  men 
from  generation  to  generation. 

Consider  the  remarkable  and  intense  teaching  of  our  Master  in 
the  fifteenth  chapter  of  John.  Consider  his  unity,  his  presence,  his 
identity  with  his  people.  Although  we  may  say  that  that  is  the 
language  which  is  natural  to  love,  I  think  we  may  interpret  from  it 
something  more  than  that. 

Regarding  it  as  true  in  all  times,  there  is  a  large  thought  in  this 
— that  Christ  is  steadily  growing  into  human  nature  and  into  the 
human  character.  This  is  going  on  now.  It  is  a  slow  growth,  to  be 
sure.  It  has  been  slow  through  the  centuries.  Nevertheless,  there 
is  a  process  of  divine  incarnation  still  going  on :  not  in  the  same  way 
as  in  the  first  and  historic  incarnation ;  but  the  spirit  of  God  is 
gradually  entering  in,  and  transforming  the  human  spirit.  Human 
society,  its  laws,  its  customs,  its  business,  its  procedures,  its  whole 
moral  condition,  usually  I'eflect  the  average  condition  of  mankind. 
They  are  the  engines  for  the  regulation  and  the  building  up  of 
humanity.  There  is  a  gradual  process  derived  from  the  heart  and 
spirit  of  those  who  frame  and  those  who  employ  human  institutions 
by  which  they  are  imbued  with  a  nobler  and  a  higher  character. 

If  you  look  upon  the  forms  of  society,  they  represented,  in  the 
earliest  day,  physical  force.     This  was  the  foundation  of  law,  for  the 


TEE  NE  W  INC  A  UNA  TION.  299 

most  part.  It  was  the  nature  of  government.  Gradually,  however, 
human  governments  and  institutions  began  to  represent  the  lower 
forms  of  wisdom — namely,  the  wisdom  of  physical  elements.  They 
became  more  minute ;  more  skillfully  adapted  to  the  conditions  of 
men ;  more  helpful.  Still  further,  they  began  to  develop  an  element 
of  justice  and  of  humanity.  There  came  to  be  more  and  more  noble 
laws  and  institutions  throughout  the  world.  The  moral  and  spirit- 
ual was  always  that  which  Avas  most  defective  in  them.  It  is  that 
in  which  all  the  framework  of  government,  of  laws,  of  institutions, 
of  the  customs  and  polities  of  society,  is  still  defective. 

We  have  seen  the  Avorld  growing  in  its  individuals,  in  its  laws, 
and  in  its  institutions.  The  growth  has  been  from  the  lower  and 
physical  forces  up,  gradually,  through  the  intellectual  and  social, 
toward  the  moral.  We  stand  on  thfe  edge  and  verge  of  the  great 
final  development  in  which  laws  and  institutions  will  represent,  not 
the  lower  nature,  but  the  very  highest  spiritual  nature  of  man,  and 
minister  to  it. 

As  yet,  the  higher  feelings  of  man  have  not  been  strong  enough 
to  counterbalance  the  great  and  universal  development,  in  society, 
of  the  physical  forces  of  man ;  but  gradually  the  moral  and  spiritual 
elements  will  come  up,  and  man  will  become  nobler  and  purer,  and 
there  will  be  a  more  etfectual  development  of  manhood  out  of  ani- 
malhood. Churches  Avill  be  more  radiant  centei'S.  They  will  be 
less  disputatious,  less  formal,  less  given  to  questions  of  reverence 
and  obedience ;  and  they  will  be  more  addicted  to  sympathy.  They 
will  be  more  genial.  They  will  have  more  personal  attractions.  The 
love-element  Avill  be  more  developed  in  them.  Public  charities  will 
predominate  more  and  more,  and  will  have  wider  scope.  The  great 
humanities  of  life  will  prevail  throughout  society.  Little  by  little 
the  industries  of  life,  its  commerce,  all  its  forms  of  occupation,  will 
rise  in  the  scale.  Even  politics,  or  the  administration  of  public 
affairs,  will  feel  the  divine  inspiration. 

There  will  come  a  time  when  men  will  live  no  longer  in  their 
lower  nature,  but  predominantly  in  their  higher.  And  they  will  live 
in  that  higher  nature  by  the  precepts  and  under  the  inspiration  of 
the  divine  Spirit.  And  so  men  shall  intermingle  their  life  with  the 
univei'sal  divine  life.  That  which  is  noblest  and  best  in  thought 
and  feeling  will  then  be  that  which  shall  shine  into  them,  by  reason 
of  their  susceptibility  to  receive  the  divine  impulse — the  divine  in- 
breathing. 

•And  when  th-j  time  shall  come,  not  in  single  individuals  here  and 
there,  nor  merely  in  groups,  but  in  whole  communities,  that  men 
are  lifted  up,  their  laws  will  come  up  with  them.     That  which  is  best 


300  THE  NEW  INCABNATION. 

will  prevail,  and  that  which  prevailed  in  earlier  periods,  and  which 
is  superseded  by  those  higher  developments,  will  go  into  desuetude, 
or  will  be  sloughed  off  by  this  moral  pi'Ogress.  Human  affairs  will 
be  administered  in  nobler  ways.  Better  policies  will  arise,  with  ,  a 
Aviser  and  discreeter  beneficence  in  them.  I  believe  that  the  time 
will  come  when  even  governments,  the  hardest  and  the  last  element 
to  be  subdued  to  equity  and  humanity,  will  be  conducted  according  to 
the  spirit  which  prevails  in  the  church,  in  the  household,  and  in  the 
hospital.  The  time  will  come  when  governments  shall  not  be  mighty 
hammers  breaking  one  another  in  pieces ;  when  they  shall  not  be 
organized  armies.  The  time  shall  come  when  kings  and  queens 
shall  be  nursing-fathers  and  nursing-mothers  in  the  world. 

"When  the  whole  of  society  shall  be  so  far  leavened  with  the 
Christ-spirit  in  its  outward  processes  and  inward  tendencies  that  it 
may  be  said  that  Christ  is  incarnated  again  among  men,  then  I  sup- 
pose will  come  to  pass  that  which  is  predicted,  the  ushering  in  of  a 
new  heaven  and  a  new  earth.  When  it  shall  come  to  pass  that  the 
predominant  tendencies  among  men,  among  nations,  in  all  the  or- 
ganizations of  society,  social,  political,  and  economic,  shall  be  ac- 
cording to  the  spirit  and  temper  of  Christ,  then  shall  be  Christ's 
second  coming.  It  shall  be  a  coming  again,  not  in  his  person,  but 
in  his  spirit ;  not  as  a  form,  but  as  a  universal  animation  of  the 
great  household  of  faith.  And  when,  in  the  last  days,  this  is  accom- 
plished, there  shall  be  one  church,  one  nation,  one  family. 

Toward  this  second  Incarnation  of  Christ  the  eyes  of  all  men 
are  turned  ;  and  for  it  the  hearts  of  all  men  do  wait. 

The  degree  of  progress  which  this  incarnation  has  made  and  is 
making  cannot  be  a  matter  of  indifference  to  those  who  believe  in 
it.  We  can  form  only  an  approximate  judgment  on  this  subject. 
The  relative  force  of  physical  and  basilar  life  compared  with  that  of 
moral  and  spiritual  life  in  the  race-stock  is  a  matter  that  would  re- 
quire, for  any  accurate  statement,  far  more  time  and  far  more  in- 
vestigation than  I  have  been  able  to  give  it.  Nevertheless,  the  ques- 
tion is  one  which  is  worthy  of  being  raised :  Has  the  race-stock 
risen  since  the  time  of  Christ  ?  I  should  say,  No,  if  you  count;  but 
Yes,  if  you  weigh.  I  do  not  know  that  numerically  there  is  now 
a  larger  part  of  the  globe  developed  in  the  direction  of  intellectual 
and  spiritual  forces  than  there  was  in  the  time  of  Christ.  And  yet, 
the  civilized  nations,  I  take  it,  are  far  higher  and  far  more  in- 
fluential than  they  were  in  Christ's  day.  If  you  institute  a  compari- 
son of  the  Roman  and  Grecian  and  Oriental  civilizations  with  the 
raedia3val  even,  and  still  more  with  the  modern  civilization,  I  think 
it  will  be  plain  that  modern  civilization  is  of  a  higher  kind ;  that 


THE  IJE  W  INCABNA  TION.  301 

there  ai*e  involved  in  it  elements  whicli  were  utterly  unknown  in 
ancient  times  ;  and  that  it  comprehends  conservative  and  preserva- 
tive elements  which  give  it  a  chance  to  endure,  which  did  not  he- 
long  to  those  earlier  civilizations.  The  civilizations  of  former  times 
lacked  a  general  moral  basis.  Modern  civilization  is  based  upon 
morals.  And  certainly  under  civilization  in  modern  days  great  mul- 
titudes of  men  have  risen  to  a  height  which  never  was  attained  by 
the  masses  in  the  olden  time. 

We  glean,  and  glean,  and  glean  the  books  of  the  best  men  of  an- 
tiquity to  find  sentences  and  sentiments  mdicating  the  conception 
of  a  higher  moral  condition  ;  and  here  and  there  there  is  a  gleam 
of  light — one  from  Socrates,  one  from  Plato,  one  from  Cicero,  and 
so  on  down ;  but  now  we  find  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men, 
we  find  church  after  church,  and  we  find  even  states,  pervaded 
with  principles  which  scarcely  dawned  as  a  glimmer  in  the  old 
civilizations. 

The  relative  Incarnation  into  society-forms  of  the  nobler  part 
of  human  nature  has  been  going  on  and  on.  The  standard  of 
morals,  on  the  whole,  has  risen  in  modern  civilization,  as  compared 
with  former  civilizations,  and  is  still  rising.  No  matter  what  tem- 
porary corruptions  there  may  be  in  single  nations ;  no  matter  what 
periods  there  may  be  of  back-slidings  in  the  world,  on  the  whole 
the  tide  is  steadily  rising  and  rising  toward  higher  conceptions 
•  of  duty  ;  toward  a  larger  standard  of  humanity ;  toward  a  nobler 
sentiment  of  purity. 

The  world  is  growing  in  its  school  of  morals.  And  although 
there  is  infinite  opposition  on  the  part  of  men  to  their  own  standards, 
although  men  are  breaking  down  and  breaking  away,  although  there 
is  resistance  where  there  ought  to  be  encouragement,  although,  in 
other  words,  men  do  not  at  all  live  up  to  their  ideals,  the  ideals  are 
growing  clearer  and  clearer,  and  under  their  light  and  influence  the 
relative  moral  character  is  all  the  time  going  up,  and  the  great  de- 
velopments of  society  in  the  right  direction  are  increasing. 

For  example,  compare  the  condition  of  modern  art  with  the  con- 
dition of  the  art  of  antiquity,  and  it  will  be  found  that  wliatever  art 
has  lost  in  form,  it  has  gained  in  character.  No  hand,  it  is  probable 
will  ever  shape  such  noble  temples  as  were  shaped  in  the  past. 
Ancient  architecture  will  scarcely  be  surpassed  as  an  art  of  beauty. 
The  ancients  seem  to  have  found  the  ultimate  limit  of  human  skill 
in  that  direction.  Nor  can  we,  since  even  the  secondary  models  of 
the  days  of  Phidias  are  the  despair  of  modern  days,  suppose  that 
modern  art  will  ever  surpass  or  touch  forms  that  are  given  to  us  in 
sculpture.    If  you  look  at  painting  it  will  be  found,  I  think,  that  the 


302  THE  N^W  INCABNATION. 

modern  jjvoductions  in  that  department  are  inferior  to  the  ancient. 
And  yet  it  cannot  be  denied  that  art  has  received  its  true  charac- 
ter in  modern  days.  While  art  in  stone  or  on  canvas  in  ancient 
times  represented,  comparatively  speaking,  ignoble  ideas,  modern 
art  is  made  to  represent  something  far  better  than  these.  For  our 
art,  like  our  power,  is  distributive.  It  is  not  so  much  the  skill  of 
single  men  to  create  a  cathedral  or  a  temple  that  we  see  in  modern 
times  :  it  is  the  skill  of  millions  of  men.  And  in  the  masses  skill  has 
gone  up  many,  many  degrees  above  what  was  knoAvn  in  antiquity, 
in  the  creation  of  domestic  abodes,  dwelling-houses.  It  is  not  that 
"we  can  cut  so  fair  a  statue  as  they  of  old  did,  that  we  regard  as 
such  a  cause  for  gratulation,  but  that  we  have  a  conception  of 
universal  adornment  in  manners,  in  customs,  in  furniture,  in  the 
whole  economy  of  living.  We  carry  out  and  spread  the  conception 
of  beauty  through  the  mass  of  myriads  of  families,  while  the  ancients 
concentrated  it  in  a  picture,  or  a  temple,  or  a  statue.  We  distribute 
it  upon  harness,  upon  vehicle,  upon  house,  upon  carpet,  upon 
window,  upon  garden. 

If  the  spirit  of  beauty  in  antiquity  be  compared  with  the  spirit 
of  beauty  in  modern  times,  there  has  been  an  immense  growth. 
And  when  men  say  that  we  are  vastly  inferior,  under  Christian  in- 
fluences, to  the  ancients  and  the  heathen,  in  art,  I  say,  Yes,  if  you 
mean  by  art  physical  perfections  of  form  ;  but  if  you  mean  art  for 
human  purposes,  and  for  civilizing,  Christianizing  reasons,  I  say  that- 
in  modern  times  art  transcends  immeasurably  what  art  was  in 
ancient  times. 

It  is  this  diffusive  art,  it  is  this  art  which  acts  as  a  sweetener  of 
life,  it  is  this  art  which  is  a  light  in  the  dwellings  of  the  poor,  it  is 
this  art  which  gilds  care,  and  goes  with  a  man  night  and  day,  as  an 
element  of  refinement  and  beauty  in  all  his  industrial  relations,  in- 
stead of  art  concentrated  and  limiting  its  blessings  to  the  few,  as 
was  the  case  Avith  the  art  of  antiquity — it  is  this  art  that  has  been 
developed  by  the  influence  of  Christianity ;  and  it  is  just  what  we 
might  expect  Christianity  to  develop. 

When,  therefore,  men  mourn  that  the  day  of  cathedrals  is  gone, 
I  cannot  mourn  with  them.'  I  am  glad  that  there  was  such  a  day; 
but  I  am  glad  that  there  is  no  longer  such  a  day ;  for  we  have  some- 
thing that  is  better  than  cathedrals.  It  is  Avell  that  they  have  been 
builded  ;  but  they  are  no  longer  of  use.  Their  functions  are  spent ; 
and  we  have  gone  on  buildiHg  cathedrals  of  men.  We  have  com- 
monwealths and  communities  that  transcend  them.  And  not  only 
have  we  noble  men,  but  if  you  take  all  the  architecture  which  be- 
longs to  our  civic  and  domestic  relations,  there  is  more  skill,  more 


THE  NB  W  INGABNA TION.  303 

beauty,  more  admirable  convenience,  bestowed  in  the  community  on 
the  dwellings  of  the  poor,  than  was  found  in  the  noblest  cathedrals 
in  the  world,  not  excepting  those  at  Milan,  and  Antwerp,  and 
Cologne,  and  York.  In  former  times  they  built  cathedrals,  and  let 
men  live  in  mud  hovels.  We  build  no  cathedrals,  and  our  poor  men 
live  in  good  houses.  And  art  is  more  developed  now,  though  in 
another  way,  than  it  ever  was  before.  As  God,  when  he  was  wor- 
shiped as  Jehovah,  had  an  element  of  grandeur  about  him,  especially 
to  the  Jews  who  claimed  that  they  were  his  peculiar  people,  but  in 
the  revelation  of  Jesus  became  distributive,  and  was  the  world's 
Saviour,  and  was  accessible  not  to  the  priest  alone,  but  to  all ;  so 
art,  when  it  was  exalted  above  the  reach  of  common  men,  was 
grand,  but  in  modei'n  times  is  distributed  and  is  the  property  of 
everybody.  It  is  developed  in  all  directions  ;  and  there  never  was 
a  time  in  the  history  of  the  world  when  it  was  doing  so  much  as  it 
is  doing  now.  To  be  sure,  we  have  no  Raj^haels  any  more ;  to  be 
sure,  we  have  no  Michael  Angelos  any  more ;  but  where,  in  the 
whole  realm  of  medieval  art,  can  you  find,  with  the  exception,  per- 
haps, of  the  works  of  Titian,  a  picture  that  shows  that  the  hearts  of 
men  looked  over  the  face  of  nature,  and  felt  that  the  heavens  de- 
dared  the  glory  of  God,  and  that  the  firmament  showed  his  hand- 
work ? 

Look  at  the  school  of  landscape-painting  in  America.  There  is 
more  sympathy  with  God's  creation  in  that  than  in  the  whole  me- 
diaeval school  of  painting  put  together.  What  if  the  mediaeval 
painters  could  paint  figure-pictures  better  than  we  can  ?  The  ques- 
tion is  not  one  of  mere  formative  power.  It  is  not  a  question 
simply  of  the  technics  of  art.  The  question  is,  "  Has  the  spirit  of 
Christ  grown  in  art  ?  Is  Christian  art  higher  than  it  was  in  the 
time  of  Christ,  or  in  the  mediaeval  ages  ?  Has  it  a  mission  ?  and  is 
it  about  that  mission  ?  I  say  that  it  is  carrying  refinement  and  com- 
fort and  joy  as  it  never  did,  and  never  knew  how  to  do,  or,  if  it 
knew  how,  did  not  have  the  means  of  doing,  in  earlier  periods. 

Still  more  striking  is  the  development  of  the  Christ-spirit  in 
literature.  If  you  look  at  the  literature  of  antiquity,  you  will  find 
the  same  condition  which  was  that  of  the  art  of  antiquity— that 
it  was  exquisite  and  beautiful  in  form,  but  utterly  lacking  in 
the  elements  of  humanity  and  of  profound  spirituality.  From  the 
time  of  Christ  down  to  our  day,  we  have  seen  in  literature  a 
steady  progress.  It  has  slowly  learned  its  functions.  It  has  little 
by  little  cleansed  itself.  It  has  learned  to  become  the  expression 
of  that  very  spirit  of  love  to  God  and  love  to  man  which  is  the 
essential  nature  of  true  religion.     And,  to-day,  as  never  before  in 


304  THE  NE  W  INCABNA  TION. 

any  age,  literature  may  be  said  to  be  evangelizing.  If  you  com- 
pare literature  to-day  with  what  it  was  in  the  times  of  DrydcMi, 
and  Pope,  and  Swift,  you  will  find  that  then  there  was  a  most  de- 
grading sense  of  homage  to  those  who  were  in  power  and  to  those 
who  were  wealthy.  The  very  dedications  are  enough  to  sicken  our 
sense  of  manliness.  Accompanying  this,  you  will  find  the  most 
stinging  and  contemptuous  allusions  to  the  ignorant  and  the  poor, 
as  a  great,  vulgar  rabble.  There  was  no  heart  that  felt  for  man  un- 
less he  had  a  scepter  in  his  hand,  or  money  in  his  pocket,  among  the 
writers  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  or  two  "hundred  years  ago.  But 
how  is  it  to-day  ?  Literature  seems  to  be  pervaded  with  that  spirit 
which  the  Advent  rung  in  ;  and  those  very  songs  which  sounded  in 
the  heaven,  are  going  out  in  music  again  from  thousands  of  sources. 
The  message,  Good  will  to  men,  is  now  being  sent  forth  in  poems  and 
in  histories.  This  feeling  of  catholic  humanity,  this  justice  founded 
on  a  spirit  of  love,  is  pervading  the  schools  of  literature.  And  al- 
though there  are  hei-e  and  there  exceptional  schools,  yet  in  the  main 
the  literature  of  the  day  breathes  a  spirit  of  humanity.  Dickens's 
books,  though  they  are  not  theological  or  religious,  are  books  which 
are  in  strange  and  admirable  harmony  with  this  message.  Good  will 
to  men.  And  Thackeray's  books  are  scarcely  less  so.  The  schools 
of  novelists  that  swarm  the  earth  are  more  or  less  under  the  influ- 
ence of  this  same  universal  spirit. 

If  you  look  at  the  conduct  of  affairs  among  nations,  it  would 
seem,  at  first  glance,  as  if  the  Christ-spirit  were  never  befoi'e  so  far 
from  governments  as  it  is  to-day.  Yet,  there  are  signs  and  tokens 
that  that  spirit  is  growing  even  among  nations.  Certainly  there  is 
a  humanity  in  war  which  was  never  known  before.  There  is  an 
unparalleled  destructiveness ;  but  there  is  a  corresponding  hu- 
manity. The  laws  of  war  are  becoming  more  and  more  stringent 
to  restrain  excesses.  And  the  cruelties  of  the  camp  are  alleviated 
by  a  strange  beneficence,  organized  and  universal,  which  gives  a 
color  of  romance,  now,  to  a  campaign.  That  uprising  of  our  Avhole 
people,  and  that  descending  of  organized  women  into  the  camp,  as 
angels  of  mercy  following  the  bloody  footsteps  of  the  soldiers  every- 
where, to  bind  up  their  woumds,  and  to  minister  to  them  when  they 
were  sick  or  dying — that  has  been  an  example  to  Europe  ;  and  in 
the  late  savage  and  terrific  wars  on  the  Continent  there  have  been 
alleviations  of  humanity  which  have  been  unknown  in  any  former 
campaigns.  And  may  we  not  believe  that  that  tendency  which  has 
been  struggling  for  twenty-five  or  thirty  years  to  show  itself — the 
tendency  of  nations  to  adopt  some  methods  by  which  wars  may  be 
turned  aside — is  going  to  prevail?    May  we  not  accept  that  ten- 


TEE  NEW  INCARNATION.  305 

dency — which  has  been  growing  like  all  growths,  with  recessions  and 
increments,  and  which  has  expressed  itself  in  that  noble  treaty 
which  has  been  made  between  Great  Britain  and  America, — as  one 
of  the  signs  and  tokens  of  a  better  era  ?  When  two  great  kindred 
Christian  nations,  that  hold  in  their  hands  the  power  of  the  world 
more  nearly  than  any  others,  between  whom  had  arisen  causes  of 
war  which  a  hundred  years  ago  would  have  set  the  globe  on  fire, 
came  together  as  rational  peoples,  and  agreed  to  leave  out  to  cool 
and  calm  arbitrament  their  diiferences,  and  accept  the  results,  may 
we  not  believe  that  again  that  angel-song  broke  out : 

"  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  and  on  earth  peace,  good  will  toward 
men?" 

Although  there  is  so  much  that,  if  looked  at  upon  the  outside, 
staggers  men,  and  leads  them  to  say,  "  There  has  been  no  improve- 
ment in  the  conduct  of  nations  " ;  yet,  if  you  look  upon  the  interior, 
and  see  how  all  spiritual  elements  are  working  their  way  in  forms 
of  justice  and  mercy,  and  in  more  rational  forms  of  administration 
I  think  you  cannot  but  see  that  Christ  is  coming  even  in  human 
governments.  The  incarnation,  Avhich  we  see  much  of  in  art  and 
literature,  we  may  see  in  public  administrations  also. 

Nay,  more ;  if  you  look  under  governments  into  the  economies 
of  life,  and  see  how  all  things  now — all  production,  all  distribution, 
all  exchange,  all  forms  of  jjublic  pi-ocedure — are  obliged  to  pay  toll 
and  tax  to  the  convenience  of  the  poor  and  helpless  ;  if  you  see  how 
amusements  themselves  are  obliged  to  key  their  offerings  to  the 
necessities  of  the  mass ;  if  you  see  how  wealth,  notwithstanding 
its  power  to  hold  the  community,  has  to  pay  regard  to  the  great 
want  and  need  of  the  masses  of  mankind,  I  think  you  cannot  but 
feel  that  there  is  progress  in  that  which  Christ  sought  to  establish 
on  the  earth.  His  mission  was  the  bringing  down  the  throne  under 
the  hut.  It  was  not  the  conjunction  of  divine  power  with  earthly 
power.  It  was  not  glory  from  above  flaming  glory  from  the  hills  of 
Judea  upon  those  who  were  below.  It  was  the  divine  power 
liumbling  itself.  It  was  the  divine  power  putting  itself  below  the 
least  human  nature.  It  was  the  lending  that  which  was  supremest 
to  the  uses  of  that  which  which  was  the  lowest. 

Such  was  the  grand  secret  of  the  advent  of  Christ.  And  that 
same  spirit  is  leavening  amusements,  occupations  and  economies  of 
every  kind,  and  getting  possession  of  them  more  and  more. 

The  incarnation,  then,  is  going  on.  The  Christ-spirit  is  mani- 
festing itself  in  many  forms.  That  spirit  is  gaining  in  tlie  civilized 
nations  of  the  globe  to-day.  And  it  is  for  us  to  pray,  Thy  kingdom 
come  in  all  these  directions.     It  is  for  us  to  enter  heartily  into  the 


3C6  THE  N:E  W  INGAmNATWN, 

spirit  of  Christ.  It  is  for  us  to  pray  for  the  advent  and  for  the  in- 
carnation in  all  these  great  practical  and  organic  forms  in  human 
society,  until  the  name  of  Christ  shall  be  a  point  of  union  among 
his  disciples,  and  not  of  repulsion,  as  hitherto  it  has  been.  For^ 
strangely,  that  yearning  man  who  stood  praying  in  Jerusalem  that 
all  might  be  one  in  him,  as  he  was  one  with  the  Father,  has  been, 
with  his  teaching  and  example,  the  grand  point  of  repulsion  from 
which  sects  have  sprung  out  and  organized  themselves  with  mutual 
antagonisms.  And  around  about  the  sacred  name  of  Christ  has 
raged  the  theological  battles  of  centuries. 

Tell  me  not  that  it  is  a  spirit  which  cares  less  for  religion.  Tell 
me  not  that  it  is  a  spirit  of  wantonness  which  is  thi-owing  oif  many 
of  the  shackles  of  the  church.  Tell  me  not  that  it  is  a  spirit  of  dis- 
obedience, and  that  it  cares  nothing  for  reverence.  I  see  in  the  re- 
laxations which  are  going  on  the  preliminary  steps  which  are  going 
to  lead  to  another  glorious  union  of  those  elements  which,  though 
they  are  in  and  of  themselves  harmonious,  have  by  hereditary  and 
other  causes  been  divided.  They  are  combined,  in  different  direc- 
tions, with  elements  which  prevent  their  union.  And  until  there  is 
some  kind  of  disintegration,  it  does  not  seem  to  me  possible  that 
they  can  be  joined  together. 

Let  us  pray,  then,  that  the  spirit  which  we  see  going  on,  and  in 
which  God  employs,  as  it  were,  the  outward  progress  of  nature, 
science  helping  it,  may  be  consummated.  Let  us  pray,  not  that 
there  may  be  less  of  devout  faith  and  worship,  nor  that  there  may 
be  less  of  intellectual  activity  concerning  the  themes  of  religion  ; 
but  that  there  may  be  more  of  that  charity  Avhich  shall  permit  men 
who  are  divided  to  unite  as  one  heart  in  praise  around  about  the 
throne  of  Christ.  And  may  we  continue  this  prayer,  and  may  this 
work  go  on,  until  Jesus  Christ  shall  develop  among  his  followers 
elements  which  shall  predominate  over  all  intellectual  elements,  and 
piety  shall  be  more  than  doctrine,  life  more  than  belief,  and  pity 
and  kindness  and  goodness  equivalent  to  orthodoxy;  until  men 
shall  come  together  by  the  heart,  and  not  by  excogitating  formulas  ; 
until  there  shall  be  a  peculiar,  universal,  personal  sympathy  which 
shall  make  the  living  God  more  real  and  more  influential  among 
men  than  churches  are,  than  the  Bible  is,  than  any  instruments  are, 
or  than  any  ordinances  can  be;  until  again  we  have  Emmanuel — 
God  with  us — dwelling  among  us,  invoked  by  our  consciousness  and 
by  our  prayers,  wrought  into  our  experience,  flowing  out  on  the 
stream  of  our  emotions,  and  made  ubiquitous  and  universal  by  the 
commingling  of  those  who  love  his  appearing;  until  the  day  shall 
come  when  Christ  shall  give  his  spirit  to  the  mother,  to  the  child,  to 


TEE  NE  W  INCA  EN  A  TION.  307 

the  household,  to  the  neigliborhood,  to  every  mechanic  in  his  voca- 
tion, to  all  who  run  to  and  fro  preparing  to  make  wealth  ;  until  in 
the  ship,  and  on  the  sea,  and  in  the  settlements  on  the  furthest 
frontier,  and  in  all  forms  of  society,  that  justice  Avhich  love  breeds 
shall  become  more  and  more  triumphant ;  until  all  art  shall  be  a 
gospel ;  until  literature  itself  shall  be  a  many-tongued  and  polyglot 
gospel ;  until  stales  shall  give  their  power,  their  laws  and  institu- 
tions to  the  promotion  of  that  which  is  highest  and  truest  and  inost 
beneficent  among  men  ;  until  the  whole  earth  shall  be  redeemed  by 
the  power  of  that  which  is  spiritual  and  divine,  and  Christ  shall 
come  to  reign  a  thousand  years. 

Look  not  back,  then,  for  eighteen  hundred  years  alone  to  think 
of  the  Advent  and  the  Incarnation.  The  grand  historical  elements 
of  it  stand  out  illustrious,  and  worthy  of  our  profound  remembrance, 
and  of  our  gratitude  ;  but  remember  that  Christ  is  always  coming, 
and  is  seeking  to  incarnate  himself  perpetually,  and  that  down 
through  the  ages  he  is  still  knocking  at  the  door  of  men's  hearts,  too 
often  coming  to  his  own  when  his  own  receive  him  not,  but,  never- 
theless, finding  some  who  receive  him,  and  to  whom  he  gives  power 
to  become  the  sons  of  God.  And  let  us  i*ejoice  that  in  our  day  his 
sway  seems  to  be  extending,  and  that  in  more  parts  of  society,  and 
in  more  languages,  men  are  rising  up  into  the  atmosphere  and  spirit 
of  the  true  Christ.     Even  so,  Lord  Jesus,  come  quickly  I 


308  THE  NEW  INCABNATION. 

PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMOK 

O  Lord,  our  God,  we  give  thanks  to  thee  for  that  disclosure  which  thou 
hast  made  of  fhy  being  and  of  thy  attributes  in  the  world  that  is  around 
about  us.  We  thank  thee  that  thou  hast  still  more  developed  thy  nature 
among  men,  and  through  them.  Holy  men  of  old  spake  as  they  were  movei 
by  the  Holy  Ghost.  But  chiefly  throui^h  thy  Son  Jesus  hast  thou  made 
known  to  us  thine  eternal  Godhead.  We  rejoice  that  now  thou  art  not  to  us 
power  or  wisdom  in  chief,  but  goodness.  We  rejoice  that  thou  hast  made 
manifest,  not  that  which  nature  teaches,  but  that  which  nacure  could  not 
teach — thy  mercy  ;  thy  pity ;  thy  recovering  love.  We  are  redeemed  from 
fear  by  the  revelation  of  thy  love.  By  thy  sacrifice  of  thine  own  self  we  are 
assured  of  the  fervor  and  the  endurance  of  thy  compassion  and  of  thy 
mercy. 

We  desire,  this  day,  to  join  all  that  around  the  world  make  mention  of 
thy  goodness.  We  desire  to  mingle  our  joy  with  the  universal  joy. — 
And  we  pray  for  that  enlightening  in flueace  of  the  Holy  Spirit  by  which  we 
may  mount  up  into  thoughts  which  are  fit  for  this  day,  and  for  thee,  thou 
Saviour  of  mankiud.  For  thy  coming;  for  tbine  earthly  residence;  for  all 
thy  words ;  for  all  thy  deeds ;  for  thy  patience ;  for  thy  suffering ;  for  thy 
death ;  for  thy  resurrection  unto  life  and  power;  and  for  thine  ascension  to 
the  source  of  all  power  again,  we  render  thee  thanksgiving  this  joyful  day. 

We  are  glad  that  thou  art  not  upon  the  earth  and  circumscribed.  We 
rejoice  that  thou  art  in  heaven  a  Prince  and  a  Saviour :  on  earth  the  poorest 
among  the  poor;  in  ^aven  the  richest  among  the  rich,  full  of  power,  and 
full  of  glory,  which  thou  dost  give  forth  as  the  sun  gives  light.  Thou  art  the 
Sun  of  our  hope  and  of  our  joy ;  and  we  hail  thee  through  the  memories  of 
this  day ;  through  all  its  sacred  associations ;  through  all  those  thoughts 
which  we  have  inherited  from  the  men  who  have  gone  before,  and  who  have 
been  taught  by  the  Spirit. 

Now,  O  Lord,  we  desire  to  give  ourselves  to  thee  a  sacrifice  in  love.  We 
desire  to  be  baptized  in  thy  Spirit;  to  know  how  to  subdue  everything  that 
is  offensive  to  thee  in  ourselves;  to  know  how  to  rise  above  the  animal  life, 
and  mount  up  into  the  divine  life ;  and  how  to  be  filled  with  wisdom  and 
power,  with  gentleness  and  love.  We  desire  to  live  in  the  spiritual  realm, 
and  to  discern  the  invisible  qualities  of  truth  in  the  existences  which  are 
around  about  us.  We  desire  to  be  more  in  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord.  And  we 
pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  that  we  may  be  touched,  this  day,  with  the  rising 
light  of  thy  coming.  In  places  where  thou  hast  not  illumined  us,  may  our 
natures  be  perfectly  subdued  to  thy  ynW.  May  we  behold  thy  coming,  this 
day,  for  victory.  Enter  into  our  souls.  Dispossess  there  whatever  is  proud, 
and  jealous,  and  envious,  and  hateful,  and  rule  in  every  heart  and  in  every 
disposition,  by  thine  own  power  of  divine  love. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  comfort,  to-day,  all  who  mourn  in  their  disap- 
pointments, and  bereavements,  and  under  the  heavy  load  of  sorrow  to 
which  thou  hast  appointed  them.  And  grant  that  as  their  day  is  their 
strength  may  be  also.  Over  against  their  sorrows  may  they  behold  the  bow 
of  God  full  of  promise. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  draw  near  to  all  who  are  detained  from  thine 
house  to-day  by  sickness,  or  by  watching  with  the  sick.  We  pray  that  they 
may  have  a  sanctuary  borne  into  them ;  that'they  may  have  a  house  of  God 
within  them.  In  their  own  hearts  may  there  be  a  temple  and  an  altar,  and 
there  may  a  sacrifice  go  up. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  draw  near  to  all  those  who  belong  to  us,  but  who 
in  thy  providence  are  separated  from  us,  upon  the  sea,  in  distant  countries, 


THE  NEW  INGABNATION  309 

or  scattered  up  and  down  through  this  vast  land.  O  Lord,  may  their 
thoughts  and  ours  be  gathered  together  in  one  place  to-day— even  in  the 
heavenly  temple.  And  grant  that  wherever  they  are,  the  blessings  which 
we  solicit  for  ourselves  may  rest  upon  them. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  thy  blessing  to  rest  upon  all  those  who  are 
endeavoring  to  follow  their  Master  in  self-denial,  and  in  laboring  for  those 
who  are  lower  than  they.  May  all  who  teach  be  themselves  taught  and 
blessed  in  the  words  of  truth.  May  all  who  go  forth  into  the  byways,  to 
minister  to  the  neglected,  to  the  outcast,  to  the  criminal,  to  the  vicious,  bear 
the  healing  Spirit  of  God  with  them.  And  as  they  water  others,  may  they 
find  themselves  refreshed. 

We  pray  that  thy  strength  may  be  given  to  all  thy  ministers  to-day ;  and 
that  they  may  preach  the  acceptable  year  Qf  the  Lord.  Grant  that  thy  sanc- 
tuaries may  be  filled  as  with  a  summer.  And  in  the  midst  of  the  season  of 
winter  grant  that  there  may  go  forth  unto  us  such  thought  of  growth,  and 
newness,  and  gladness,  that  all  the  outward  shall  be  hidden ;  that  by  our 
souls  we  shall  discern  the  new  heaven  and  the  new  earth  in  which  dwell 
righteousness,  and  universal  joy,  and  peace,  and  prosperity.  And  at  last 
banish  from  the  world  all  evil.  Open  the  pit,  and  sweep  therein  all  tor- 
menting spirits.  Let  fall  again  the  stone  which  shall  seal  for  a  thousand 
years.    And  grant  that  the  whole  earth  may  rest  and  rejoice  in  the  Lord. 

We  ask  these  things,  not  in  our  own  name,  but  in  His  name  who  died  for 
us.  And  to  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Spirit  shall  be  praises  immor- 
tal.   Amen. 


^       PRAYER  AFTER  THE  SERMON. 

Our  Father,  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  bless  the  word  which  has  been  spoken. 
Grant  that  we  may  enter  into  its  spirit.  Grant  that  we  may  have  faith  to 
discern  that  which  we  cannot  discern  by  sight.  Grant  that  we  may  see  the 
signs  and  tokens  of  thy  coming  on  earth,  and  rejoice  therein  with  sacred 
joy.  May  our  hearts  be  attuned  by  divine  love.  May  we  carry  about  with 
us  the  spirit  of  Christ  everywhere ;  and  may  we  seek  everywhere  to  give 
Him  admission.  And  may  He  abide  with  us.  And  so  grant  that  we  may, 
as  it  were,  walk  with  Him  in  his  earthly  ministry  again.  And  when  we 
shall  have  fulfilled  his  will  upon  earth,  may  we  be  counted  worthy  to  be 
ranked  among  his  followers  in  the  heavenly  land,  where  we  shall  behold 
him  no  longer  as  through  a  glass  dimly,  but  face  to  face,  and  shall  kno-vr 
Him  even  as  we  are  known  by  Him.  And  to  thy  name  shall  be  praises. 
Father,  Son  and  Spirit,  evermore.    Amen. 


xvir. 
The  Worth  of  Suffering. 


INVOCATION. 


Our  Father,  thou  hast  taught  us  to  call  thee  by  this  name.  Thou  hast 
made  it  very  dear  to  us.  We  have  never  come  in  the  spirit  of  children  to 
thee  and  invoked  the  Father's  blessing,  and  gone  away  empty ;  for,  though 
thou  hast  not  always  given  us  the  things  we  asked,  thou  hast  always  given  us 
the  joy  that  would  have  come  from  things  asked,  or  more  and  better  things. 
And  we  rejoice  that  thou  art  never  weary.  All  the  earth  looks  to  thee ;  and 
yet,  such  art  thou,  and  such  is  the  fullness  of  thy  being,  and  the  grandeur  of 
thy  government,  that  thou  art  not  weary.  Thou  dost  carry,  with  infinite 
patience,  and  ease  in  gladness,  increasing  evermore,  the  whole  of  creation. 
We  are  upheld  by  thee.  We  rejoice  in  it.  Thou  that  art  almighty,  bear  us 
up  upon  thy  wings  of  power.  Thou  that  art  unapproachable  from  ex- 
cess of  brightness,  give  to  our  darkness  something  of  thy  light.  Thou 
that  art  holy  and  perfect,  round  us  up  into  perfection.  And  grant  that  in  all 
the  experiences  of  our  lives  we  may  never  be  far  from  that  molding  hand 
of  God  which  punishes  and  caresses  alike  for  our  good.  We  ask  it  in  the 
name  of  Jesus,  our  Friend  and  Redeemer.  Amen. 
17. 


THE  WORTH  OE  STJFFERIia. 


"No-w,  no  chastening  for  the  present  seemeth  to  be  joyous,  hut  grievous  : 
nevertheless,  afterward  it  yieldeth  the  peaceable  fruit  of  righteousness  unto 
them  which  are  exercised  thereby." — Heb.  XII.  11. 


The  problem  of  suffering  is  not  modern,  as  the  experience  is  not 
modern.  In  many  respects  human  thought  in  the  early  day  was  in- 
fantine ;  but  in  dealing  with  the  problem  of  sufiering  it  seems  to 
have  gone  deeper,  to  have  rounded  itself  up  more  completely,  than 
in  almost  any  other  direction.  The  speculations  which  you  will 
find  in  the  book  of  Job  are  just  as  far-reacliing,  and  the  musings 
and  the  repinings  of  Solomon  are  just  as  distinct  as  the  echoes  which 
you  hear  in  Byron. 

This  seems  to  have  been  one  of  those  themes  upon  which  the 
human  mind  exercised  itself  with  more  power  than  upon  any  other. 
The  theories  of  evil ;  the  reasons  why  it  should  have  been  brought 
into  the  world — these  questions  have  tasked  all  theologies  as  well  as 
all  philosophies.  And  they  seem  to  me  to  be  as  useless  as  any  ques- 
tions that  possibly  can  be  raised.  Why  was  evil 'permitted  f  is  only 
in  another  shape,  Why  was  the  world  created  as  it  is  ?  If  the  world 
had  been  created  like  a  chorded  instrument,  perfect,  and  swung  into 
existence  with  all  its  chords  in  tune,  then  it  might  be  pertinent  to  in- 
quire. How  came  it  untuned  and  unstrung?  From  what  source 
was  the  evil  emptied  in  upon  the  world  ?  But  since  the  method  of  cre- 
ation was  to  originate  men  at  the  lowest  point,  and  develop  them 
steadily  from  that  point  upward,  and  to  do  it  through  the  medium 
of  their  own  personal  experience,  then  evil  is  simply  another  word 
for  labor-pain,  or  growing-pain.  It  is  part  and  parcel  of  the  struc- 
tural relation  of  men,  in  time,  to  social  and  civil  elements.  And 
to  ask.  Why  was  evil  permitted  ?  is  merely  to  ask.  Why  did  God 
make  trees  so  that  they  cast  a  shadoio  ?  Why  did  he  not  make  the 
light  so  that  it  would  go  through  green  leaves  as  it  does  through 
transparent  glass  ? — and  many  other  fool-questions. 

The  theories  as  to  the  source  or  origin  of  evil  have  come  down  in 

Sunday  Morning,  Dec.  31, 1871.    Lesson :  Heb.  XH.    Hymns  (Plymouth  Collection) 
Nos.  666,  273,  725. 


314  THE  WORTH  OF  SUFFEEINO. 

regular  sequence,  reproducing  themselves  in  one  form  or  another,  all 
the  Avay  from  the  beginning.  It  was  early  thought  that  good  and  evil 
proceeded  from  two  spirits.  It  was  believed  that  there  was  a  divided 
government.  This  is  the  Oriental  doctrine  to-day.  According  to 
this  doctrine  malign  spirits  rule  in  part,  whenever  they  can,  and  are 
in  perpetual  conflict  with  the  divine  Spirit.  Good  comes  from  God, 
and  evil  comes  from  the  evil  spirit,  it  has  been  supposed. 

So  evil  was  regarded  as  a  direct  injection,  if  I  may  so  say.  It  was 
thought  to  be  a  mischief  secreted,  as  it  were,  in  infernal  spirits,  and 
then  thrown  upon  the  world. 

Then  it  came  to  be  regarded  as  a  judgment  of  God.  This  was 
a  step  upward.  It  was  supposed  to  be  a  punishment  for  sin.  This 
•was  the  current  impression  in  the  time  of  our  Master ;  and  there- 
fore, as  an  indispensable  corollary,  it  followed  that  where  men  suf- 
fered they  had  been  sinful,  and  that  where  they  were  prosperous 
they  were  righteous.  And  yet,  though  this  was  a  great  trouble  with 
Job,  he  was  perpetually  showing  the  contrary.  He  was  an  object 
of  great  suffering.  He  was  visited  by  queer  comforters.  He  was 
cast  down  in  the  abjectest  misery.  But  it  was  not  on  account  of  his 
unrighteousness ;  for  he  appealed  to  God  and  men  to  witness  his 
integrity,  and  showed  that  suffering  came  from  the  hand  of  a  disci- 
plining God.  And  yet  it  was  generally  believed  that  Avhere  men 
suffered  they  had  been  sinning.  As  I  have  intimated,  our  Master; 
in  his  own  day,  found  this  idea  current.  When  a  man  was  blind, 
his  disciples  said  to  him,  "  Who  hath  sinned  ?  He  is  blind,  and  of 
course  some  one  has  sinned ;  who  hath  done  it  ?  Is  it  this  man,  or 
is  it  his  parents?"  And  the  Saviour  said,  "Neither.  Blindness 
and  its  suffering  are  not  necessarily  indications  of  moral  obliquity." 

The  modern  idea  seems  to  be  that  all  suffering  is  from  the  vio- 
lation of  law.  This  is  just  as  partial,  and  just  as  imperfect  philosoph- 
ically, and  just  as  crude  as  either  of  the  other  theories.  Indeed  it  is 
but  a  modification  of  the  preceding  theory ;  for  God  is  regarded  as 
the  expression  of  the  divine  law.  This  view,  therefore,  may  be  con- 
sidered as  only  a  modern  way  of  saying  that  suffering  comes  from 
disobedience  to  God  expressed  by  his  laws. 

Now,  none  of  these  views  is  without  an  element  of  truth.  None 
of  them,  however,  covers  the  whole  of  the  facts  of  human  experi- 
ence.    They  leave  out  a  transcendent  sphere  of  reality. 

Suffering  does  result,  to  a  certain  extent,  from  the  violation  of 
the  physical,  social,  and  civil  laws  which  environ  men.  Where  we 
knowingly  or  unknowingly  transgress  laws  which  are  related  to  the 
organic  conditions  of  our  being,  we  are  punished,  and  we  suffer. 
Whether  we  know  it  or  not,  improper  food  induces  suffering ,  un- 


THE  WOBTR  OF  SUFFEBING.  315 

suitable  clothing  induces  sickness;  exposure  induces  pain.  In  a 
thousand  ways  we  suffer  by  the  violation  of  law.  We  suffer  in  our 
social  relations  and  in  our  civil  relations  perpetually  by  setting  aside 
established  canons  or  regulations. 

We  also  suffer  by  derivation.  Thus,  there  are  many  who  have 
scarcely  a  well  day  as  long  as  they  live,  though  they  have  not  sinned 
against  natural  law  themselves.  They  have  inherited  a  constitution 
which  subjects  them  to  perpetual  unhealth.  They  are  unavoidably 
compelled  to  endure  innumerable  sufferings.  It  is  not  their  fault 
that  they  were  born  with  a  tendency  to  suffering.  All  the  discords 
and  janglings  of  their  system  were  brought  upon  them  by  others' 
transgressions,  and  not  their  own.  It  is  not  a  man's  own  fault 
that  he  has  inherited  a  stomach  which  is  absolutely  diseased,  and  is 
a  fruitful  source  of  numerous  other  diseases,  real  or  simulated. 
Moreover,  I  think  our  most  acute  sufferings  are  not  from  Avhat  we 
ourselves  do  in  violation  of  law,  but  from  what  is  done  upon  us.  If 
I  put  my  hand  in  the  fire,  I  suffer  from  the  violation  of  law ;  but  if 
a  man  throws  coals  on  me,  it  is  not  my  fault,  but  his.  I  suffer  from 
blows  that  were  struck  upon  me,  and  from  troubles  that  are  caused 
by  other  people,  though  I  am  walking  absolutely  in  obedience  to  all 
natural  law.  It  is  in  the  power  of  other  people  to  impose  suffering 
upon  me.  Therefore,  to  say  that  suffering  would  be  avoided  if  men 
would  keep  themselves  in  the  line  of  obedience  to  natural  law,  is  a 
very  imperfect  recipe  for  happiness  in  this  world. 
--  1.  Our  sufferings  spring  from  our  social  liabilities.  I  do  not 
mean  the  liabilities  to  which  I  have  just  alluded,  of  physical  inflic- 
tion. Frequently  the  keenest  sufferings  which  men  are  called  to 
endure  in  this  world  arise  from  their  sympathetic  relations.  While 
love  pleases,  and  is  a  source  of  innumerable  comforts,  it  carries  with 
it  also  the  possibilities  of  great  suffering.  It  is  impossible  that  you 
should  attach  yourself  to  another  and  not  be  affected  by  his  pros- 
perity or  adversity.  We  all  do  "  weep  with  them  that  weep,"  and 
"  rejoice  with  them  that  do  rejoice."  We  are  so  united  to  our  friends 
that  we  cannot  help  bearing  their  burdens.  Parents  are  so  affiliated 
with  their  children  that  they  themselves  may  obey  every  natural, 
social,  and  civil  law,  and  yet  suffer  if  those  children  go  wrong.  It  is 
not  the  man  that  is  dissipated  that  bears  the  affliction.  It  is  those 
who  love  him  and  are  not  participators  in  his  sin,  who  suffer  from 
his  trangressions.  We  are  so  knitted  together  in  our  social  relations 
that  the  liability  for  good  which  those  relations  carry  with  them, 
Bubjects  us  also  to  a  corresponding  liability  for  evil.  And  if  you  an- 
alyze and  look  into  the  relations  of  suffering  to  actual  facts  and  con- 
ditions, it  will  be  largely  found  that  men  suffer  in  this  Avorld  from 


316  TEE  WORTH  OF  S  UFFEBING 

shame,  and  from  mortified  pride,  and  from  wounded  affection,  and 
from  benevolence  pierced  and  oppressed,  on  account  of  the  misfor- 
tunes, the  sins,  the  wrong  goings  and  the  wrong  doings  of  those  to 
whom  they  are  related  socially  and  morally.  And  there  is  no  violation 
of  natural  law  here.  Men  say,  "All  suffering  would  disappear  if 
there  were  no  violation  of  natural  law ;"  but  what  obedience  to  nat- 
ural law  can  you  imagine  that  will  save  a  mother  or  a  father  from 
suffering  when  a  child  suffers?  The  child  may  have  violated  natural 
law,  and  may  suffer ;  and  the  secondary  suffering,  or  rebound,  which 
comes  upon  the  parent,  is  worse  than  the  original  suffering  which  the 
child  experiences.  Oftentimes  the  one  who  is  related  to  the  perpe- 
trator of  the  deed  suffers  more  than  the  perpetrator  himself.  It  ia 
the  friends  of  the  gambler  and  dissipated  man  that  suffer  most. 
It  is  not  the  child  that  runs  into  an  insanity  of  the  passions  who 
suffers  most.  It  is  the  one  who  is  the  purest,  the  most  sensitive,  and 
the  nearest  like  God,  that  bears  the  sins  of  others.  When  it  is  said 
that  Christ  bore  the  sins  of  others,  people  argue  upon  this  matter 
with  the  most  stately  ignorance,  and  say  that  it  is  inconsistent  with 
justice  and  propriety.  But  it  is  the  grand  culmination  in  that  line 
of  facts  which  characterizes  the  development  of  human  beings  and 
of  society,  that  just  in  proportion  as  men  are  pure,  and  upright,  and 
noble,  and  sensitive  in  their  dispositions,  they  become  capacitated 
to  suffer  more  and  more,  not  from  their  own  misdoings,  but  the  mis- 
doings of  those  with  whom  they  are  in  sympathetic  affiliations. 
He  who  sins  suffers ;  but  as  it  is  not  the  dead  ivory  which  the  thumb 
strikes  that  moans  or  rejoices,  but  the  cord  which  is  connected  with 
the  key ;  so  in  life,  the  suffering  does  not  necessarily  report  itself  at 
the  point  where  the  wrong  takes  place,  but  in  those  social  connec- 
tions by  which  persons  are  related  together — in  the  chorded  hearts 
of  those  who  are  nobler  and  higher  than  those  by  whom  the  wrong 
is  committed. 

3.  Our  benevolent  sympathies  produce  suffering.  That  is  to  say, 
quite  aside  from  our  social  relations  we  suffer  by  reason  of  the  nor- 
mal and  proper  development  of  our  higher  faculties.  Our  nobler 
nature,  our  divine  manhood,  is  like  a  tree  of  life.  Its  very  leaves 
are  for  the  healing  of  the  nations.  It  is  full  of  fragrant  blossoms.  It 
is  full  of  luscious  fruit.  Nevertheless,  a  man  is  liable  to  suffer  just 
in  proportion  as  he  is  good,  by  the  violation  of  liis  benevolent  sym- 
pathies. The  sight,  for  instance,  of  gross  ignorance,  and  of  the  evil 
which  proceeds  from  it,  in  this  world,  is  a  sight  which  cannot  but 
bring  pain  to  every  sensitive  being.  If  you  are  selfish  enough  to  hide 
it,  then  you  save  yourself  the  suffering ;  but  if  you  are  benevolent, 
and  you  will  not  hide  it,   and  you  go   oiit  and  look  at  it,  and 


TR-E  WOETE  OF  SUFFEBINQ.  317 

study  its  meaning,  and  trace  its  result,  you  Avill  suffer.    Just  in  pro- 
{  portion  as  you  are  godlike,  your  benevolence  brings  suffering  to  you. 
If  that  which  we  see  to  be  wrong  can  be  remedied  by  our  exertion, 
then  we  cease  to  suffer. 

The  surgeon,  at  first,  when  he  is  inexperienced,  is  full  of  woman's 
tremulousness ;  but  when  he  begins  to  know  that  there  is  skill  in  his 
hand  and  knowledge  in  his  head,  by  which  he  can  relieve  the  pa- 
tient, he  learns,:  while  inflicting  suffering,  to  be  calm,  because  he 
knows  that  by  the  infliction  of  suffering  he  can  aflbrd  relief. 

And  in  life,  when  we  look  on  the  mass  of  mankind  and  see  them 
in  their  degradation,  and  are  conscious  that  we  have  the  power  and 
the  disposition  to  pour  light  upon  their  experience,  and  to  carry  san- 
ity to  their  insane  passions,  we  do  not  suffer.  But  to  walk  among 
the  dead  that  yet  go  about  as  if  they  were  alive ;  to  see  what  terri- 
ble earthquakes  there  are ;  to  see  what  volcanic  eruptions  there  are ; 
to  live  where  you  must  look  upon  these  things,  and  where  they  can- 
not be  hidden  from  your  eyes — this  must  needs  produce  suffering  in 
you,  if  you  are  a  man.  Men  suffer  not  alone  from  their  own  disobe- 
dience, but  more  from  the  disobedience  of  others.  Just  in  proportion  \ 
to  the  noblest  elements  of  their  being  according  to  the  divine  law, 
just  in  proportion  as  they  round  themselves  out  in  the  likeness  of 
divinity — in  that  proportion  they  are  capacitated  to  suffer  through 
the  higher  forms  of  benevolence. 

Moreover,  suffering  in  this  world  belongs  to  the  unfolding  process. 
In  other  words,  it  belongs,  in  the  nature  of  things,  to  the  passage 
from  a  lower  to  a  higher  stage. 

So  far,  therefore,  from  suffering  being  a  divine  or  natural  penalty, . 
it  is,  on  the  other  hand,  as  I  have  said,  a  social  liability  which  in-  j 
creases  with  the  susceptibility  and  the  sweetness  of  affection.  It  is  \ 
a  state  of  facts  which  develops  itself  on  the  actual  benevolence  of  \ 
the  loftier  forms  of  manhood.  And  it  is  one  of  those  things  which  \ 
makes  the  transition  from  the  lower  to  the  higher,  all  the  way  up.      '■ 

Now,  that  men  are  builded — literally,  I  had  almost  said — in  their 
better  parts  upon  their  grosser  elements ;  that  the  higher  develop- 
ments of  the  mind  are  superimposed  upon  the  lower ;  that  men  grow 
in  grace  by  reason  of  the  exercise  of  their  worldly  faculties ;  that 
from  the  stalk  below  shoot  out  and  elongate,  as  it  were,  the  higher 
forms  of  experience — these  things  it  needs  no  Avords  of  mine  to 
prove.     It  is  true  that  there  is  often  and  often  a  very  marked  devel- 
opment of  manhood  from  a  lower  to  a  higher  stage.     For  instance, 
j  we  not  unfrcquently  see  the  passage  of  a  man  from  predominant 
1  pride  to  glorious  humility.     And  the  passage  is  one  of  pain  and  suf- 
fering.    As  when  men  arc  born  into  life  they  come  with  labor-pain 


318  THE  WOBTH  OF  SUFFEUING. 

and  with  outcry ;  so,  afterward,  there  are  successive  develcpments  of 
birth  again  in  each  particuhir  faculty,  or  in  groups  of  faculties,  as 
they  rise  to  higher  stages.  Men  go  through  conflicts,  they  go  through 
severe  pangs,  on  their  way  to  the  realization  of  that  to  which  they 
aspire.  They  reach  the  higher  conditions  of  enjoyment  often  through 
the  hell-gate  of  suffering.  And  no  man  can  exempt  himself  from 
j suffering  when  rising-  from  a  lower  to  a  higher  stage.  But  of  that 
more  hereafter. 

Let  us,  then,  divest  ourselves  from  all  crude  and  unfounded  no- 
tions in  respect  to  suffering,  as  though  it  were  either  the  infliction 
of  a  malign  divinity,  or  the  penalty  of  some  violation  by  us 
of  natural  law,  or  as  if  it  had  no  other  than  a  primitive  end  to 
subserve.  Suffering,  while  it  has  a  restraining  function,  and  while 
it  has  also  a  primitive  function,  needs  to  be  augmented,  until  we 
shall  find  in  it  a  stimulating  power,  an  educating  power,  and  a  joy- 
bearing  power.  For  the  best  forms  of  suffering  are  not  those  low 
and  muzzling  experiences  which  lie  close  to  the  earth,  or  to  the 
earthly  passions.  The  sublimest  sufferings  are  those  which  men 
bear  in  the  topmost  branches  of  their  nature. 

We  will  now  look  at  suffering  principally  as  being  a  part  of  the 
divine  economy  by  which  God  augments  the  influence  of  higher 
motives,  by  which  he  punishes;  and  by  which,  also,  he  stimulates, 
enlarges,  adjudicates,  and  makes  potent  and  glorious  the  whole  hu- 
man, mental  structure. 

Looking  at  the  actual  experience  of  suffering  in  this  world,  I 
remark.  First,  that  it  is  seldom  continuous.  We  are  liable,  .in 
preaching  a  whole  sermon  on  the  subject  of  suffering,  to  produce  an 
impression  that  it  does  not  intermit.  We  are  liable  to  make  it 
seem  to  be  a  garment  which  men  put  on  and  wear.  Whereas,  in 
point  of  fact,  the  developments  of  suffering  are  occasional,  after  all ; 
and  those  who  suffer  have  long  periods  of  exemption  from  suffering. 
From  the  experience  of  people  at  large,  the  economy  of  God  is  such 
that  suffering  bears  a  very  small  proportion  to  the  enjoyment  of  life. 
It  is  probable  that  suffering  would  produce  morbid  conditions  if  it 
were  prolonged,  constant,  and  uniform.  But  the  intervals  of  suffer- 
ing are  long,  and  the  joys  which  alternate  with  it  are  many.  Ordi- 
narily we  see  that  the  amount  which  men  suffer  is  very  small  com- 
pared with  their  low-toned  enjoyments,  at  morning,  noon  and  night. 
The  quiet  pleasures  of  social  intercourse;  the  satisfaction  which 
comes  from  the  legitimate  exercise  of  all  our  faculties ;  the  joy  con- 
sequent upon  activity,  and  the  excitements  of  it ;  the  remunerations 
ofthought;  the  pleasure  of  ingathering  knowledge;  the  happiness 
which  results  from  the  minor  play  of  our  social  sympathies ;  the 


THB  WOBTH  OF  SUFFERING.  319 

enjoyment  which  comes  from  the  ten  thousand  Httle  sidelong  influ- 
ences which  ray  out  from  us,  ayd  reach  unto  us  as  we  Avalk  among 
men — how  these  things  solace  life,  and  bear  men  up  with  strength, 
so  that  by  and  by  when  there  comes  a  gloomy  day,  they  are  able 
to  bear  the  suffering  which  it  inflicts ! 

Too  often  it  is  the  case  that  men  remember  their  sorrow,  and  do 
not  register  their  joy.  But  even  under  afflictions,  if  men  did  but 
know  it,  there  are  musical  tones  which  might  strike  through  the 
requium's  wail.  There  are  lights  that  might  illumine  their  dark, 
Rembrandtian  sorrows.  Men  fall  into  a  mania.  Sorrow  takes  on  a 
diseased  form.  It  becomes  morbid.  It  whets  and  stimulates  itself. 
It  ferments.  It  overflows.  It  tinges  the  whole  mind  from  top  to 
bottom  with  its  color.  As  just  after  a  drenching  rain  every  twig 
on  the  tree  is  fringed  with  the  drops,  and  every  leaf  weeps ;  and,  as 
when  some  gust  of  wind  strikes  it  the  tree  rains  again,  as  if  it 
were  a  cloud ;  so,  when  sad  experience  comes  upon  us,  we  are  apt  to 
be  remorseless  with  ourselves,  and  to  Avork  upon  our  own  suscepti- 
bilities. We  do  not  put  hope  over  against  despair;  and  cheer  over 
against  gloom.  Therefore  much  of  the  suffering  which  men  have 
in  life,  much  of  the  gloom  which  they  are  under,  results  from  the 
not  using  of  themselves  wisely.  I  see  in  many  who  come  to  me  a 
morbid  taste  for  suffering.  It  is  a  hideous  form  of  excitement. 
Persons  at  last  even  come  to  a  state  in  which  they  want  to  suffer — 
or  rather,  want  to  be  thought  to  suffer.  They  want  to  reap  in  the 
fields  of  sympathy  this  abnormal,  and  what  seems  to  me,  hideous 
praise  of  seeming  to  suffer.  Sometimes  no  greater  offence  can  be 
given  than  to  compliment  persons  on  their  health,  and  happiness, 
and  prosperity.  For  they  are  martyrs,  and  they  walk  under  a  cope 
of  sadness ;  and  not  to  recognise  that,  is  to  deny  them  the  chief 
pleasure  almost  of  their  life.     To  be  miserable  is  their  joy ! 

Secondly^  Suffering,  when  it  results  from  moral  causes,  has  in  it 
a  victorious  element.  If  you  look  upon  what  is  called  sujfering,  it 
is  not  one  unmitigated  ache.  It  is  not  one  continued  cloud  that 
lijdes  the  sun  all  day  and  all  night.  Even  in  the  minor  relations  of 
life  it  intermits,  and  joys  sparkle  in  it.  It  has  its  night,  and  its 
liours  of  cloud ;  but  for  the  most  part  it  has  wider  spaces  of  clear 
sky  than  spaces  that  are  dark  and  overcast.  And  Avhen  you  rise 
from  this  lower  form  to  suffering  of  the  moral  nature,  there  is  al- 
(niost  always  in  that  (and  there  may  be  always)  a  victorious  element. 

There  is  nothing  more  certain  than  that  moral  sufferings  cany 
groat  joys.  For  instance,  there  is  triumph  where  there  is  suffering 
that  has  self-denial  in  it,  and  where  that  self-denial  means  the  eman- 
cipation of  nobler  elements  from  the  bondage  of  lower  one.s. 


320  TEE  WOBTH  OF  SUFFERING. 

That  which  is  good  in  a  man — his  conscience,  his  faith,  his 
benevolence,  his  purity — struggles  with  the  appetites  and  passions 
which  have  been  in  the  ascendant,  and  thrusts  them  back,  and 
throws  them  down,  and  rises  up  out  of  its  degradation  by  the  lower 
feelings,  and  triumphs ;  and  the  right  is  in  the  ascendency  again. 
"When  such  a  victory  takes  place,  when  a  right  feeling  in  a  man 
gains  ascendency  over  a  wrong  feeling,  there  is  pain,  but  it  is  pain 
of  the  lower  nature.  And  there  is  also  joy  of  the  higher  nature. 
The  paradox  of  Scripture  is  seen  in  human  life  all  the  time.  The 
apostle  speaks  of  rejoicing  in  his  afllictions,  and  of  the  consolations 
by  which  he  was  comforted  in  his  sorrow,  that  thereby  he  might 
console  those  who  were  in  affliction.  We  see  the  same  thing  in  hu- 
man life ;  and  we  understand  how  it  is  that  suffering  and  the  high- 
est joy  can  go  together.  As  discords  resolve  themselves  into  the 
sweetest  harmonies ;  as  the  impetuous  roar  of  dashing  music  gives 
to  the  silence  during  the  pauses  a  magical  charm ;  so  we  see  in  the 
actual  experiences  of  human  life  that  those  sorrows  which  are  hard- 
est to  bear  carry  with  them  wings  of  joy ;  so  that  though  the  soul 
may  fly  in  a  clouded  atmosphere,  it  flies  singing,  and  rises  higher 
and  higher  towards  the  cloudless  land.  Therefore  suffering  in  all 
the  higher  forms  in  this  life  is  joy  as  well  as  suff'ering. 

Thirdly,  Suff'ering  in  all  noble  and  growing  natures  finally  be- 
comes an  element  of  harmony.  And  so  it  ought  to  waste  itself. 
That  is,  the  suffering  should  grow  less  and  less,  and  the  joy  should 
grow  more  and  more.  If  you  have  ever  watched  the  process  by 
which  one  tunes  a  piano,  you  will  understand  what  I  mean.  When 
the  concert-pitch  is  taken  from  the  tuning  fork,  a  chord  is  brought 
up  to  that  pitch  to  become  a  standard.  And  then  the  next  note  is 
taken,  and  as  the  tuning  key  is  put  upon  the  chord,  and  is  turned, 
and  turned,  this  chord  is  a  great  way  wrong,  if  that  one  is  right. 
But  little  by  little,  as  the  man  turns,  it  rises  up  into  its  place.  For 
a  while,  it  makes  a  hideous  noise  like  the  wailing  of  a  cat ;  but  it  is 
on  its  way  toward  harmony;  and  by  and  by  no  discord  remains 
but  a  little  in  the  air ;  and  at  last  none  is  heard. 

So  it  is  in  our  natures.  Where  suffering  is  doing  its  proper 
work,  it  is  all  the  time  bringing  our  discordant  feelings  to  a  point 
where  they  harmonize  themselves.  We  tend  by  nature  to  grow 
rank ;  and  in  favorable  circumstances  we  grow  very  rank  and  lush. 
What  we  need,  therefore,  much  more  than  anything  else,  is  disci- 
pline, restraint.  As  without  breaking  and  without  the  haruess  the 
colt  is  worthless,  so  man,  who  is  a  wild  colt  indeed,  in  order  to  be  as 
useful  as  he  is  capable  of  being,  needs  more  breaking,  more  training, 
more  harnessing,  antl  more  hard  work.    It  is  not  when  a  man  is  In 


TEE  WORTH  OF  8UFFEEINQ.  321 

prosperity,  and  unrestrained — when  he  is  fattening  on  oats,  as  it 
■were — that  he  is  most  in  harmony  with  himself  and  so  with  the 
best  interests  of  society.  It  is  suffering  that  teaches  men,  and 
brings  their  feelings  in  unison  one  with  another. 
I  Thus,  there  is  a  commonwealth  in  a  man's  nature,  and  every 
part  of  it  is  more  or  less  cultured  by  the  fact  of  suffering.  Men 
who  go  out  into  life,  and  are  not  held  in  by  any  experience  of  suf- 
fering, and  are  strong  and  prosperous  on  every  side,  hardly  know 
themselves.  Self-knowledge  comes  largely  through  the  strokes  of  | 
suffering.  And  suffering  is  a  hard  school-master — with  mercy, 
often ;  but  it  is  a  school-master ;  and  a  man  who  has  suffered  a 
great  deal  cannot  be  ignorant  of  himself — especially  if  his  suffering 
be  of  the  higher  forms. 

'     Nor  is  it  possible  for  one  to  have  suffering  without  finding  out 

some  way  to  bear  it.     The  object  of  suffering  is  to  give  equipoise 

and  discipline  to  the  mind ;  and  you  cannot  suffer  much  without 

■  giving,  as  I  might  say,  that  proportion  and  balance  of  things  on 

;  which  the  fruit  of  manhood  depends. 

i  I  A  vine  planted  in  a  rich  soil  tends  to  outgrow  its  fruit.  It 
1  grows  rank,  and  runs  and  rushes  over  the  trellis.  Then  comes 
i  the  vintner  with  his  pruning-knife  and  cuts  it  back.  He  will  not 
suffer  it  to  bear  leaves  alone,  but  compels  it  to  bear  grapes.  And 
BO  when,  according  to  the  tendency  of  our  nature,  we  grow  rank, 
and  bear  leaves  in  abundance,  but  no  fruit,  we  are  put  upon  a 
course  of  discipline,  we  are  cut  back,  and  are  brought  into  some 
sort  of  proportion.  We  need  to  be  cut  back ;  and  suffering  is  the 
pruning-knife  that  does  the  work. 

Suffering  becomes,  also,  a  matter  of  patience  and  strength.  We 
j  see  in  life  that  no  characters  are  so  admirable  as  those  that  have 
i  been  shaped  by  a  great  deal  of  suffering.  Dr.  Spurzheim,  among 
a  thousand  other  insights  and  maxims  of  wisdom,  said  that  no 
woman  was  fitted  to  become  a  wife  until  she  had  seen  suffering.  I 
would  only  correct  it  by  adding  that  no  man  is  fitted  to  become  a 
husband  who  has  not  seen  some  suffering.  Suffering  on  manly  na- 
tures has  a  ripening  influence.  It  certainly  tends  to  produce  pa- 
tience, inwardness.  It  tends  to  wean  one  from  superficiality.  It 
tends  to  drive  one  in  upon  those  fountains,  those  sources  of  life,  that 
not  only  are  inward  but  are  the  most  profound.  It  tends  to  deepen. 
You  Avill  see  that  when  brooks  flow  from  the  mountains,  though 
as  they  begin  to  go  down  they  move  gently  and  smoothly  and 
sweetly,  yet  when  at  last  they  come  to  the  chasm,  the  waters  plunge 
down  suddenly  to  the  bottom  and  finding  no  outlet,  whirl  round 
and  round  and  round,  and,  seizing  a  rock  which  happens  to  be 


322  TEE  WOBTE  OF  SUFFEBING. 

there,  turn  it  over  and  over  and  over  perpetually,  and  "wear  tha 
place  deeper  and  deeper,  so  that  it  never  becomes  dry.  And  it  is 
troubles  Avhich  roll  about  in  men's  souls  that  dig  deep  places  in 
them  which  even  in  the  droughts  of  summer  never  are  dry.         ' 

So  it  is  said  that  sorrow  worketh.  Look  at  some  of  those  ex- 
quisite and  extraordinarily  rare  workings  in  iron  at  old  Nuremberg 
(one  of  the  most  charming,  I  think,  of  the  cities  of  Europe),  in 
the  cathedral.  Do  you  suppose  the  iron  was  just  pinched  jout 
into  shape?  How  many  strokes  did  it  receive?  How  many 
hittings  did  it  undergo  on  the  anvil  ?  How  was  it  beaten  here 
and  there?  How  was  it  bent  forward,  and  backward,  and  for- 
ward, and  backward  again  ?  How  was  it  distorted  and  contorted  ? 
How  was  it  worked  and  worked  till  by  and  by  it  was  covered  with 
little  specules  as  multitudinous  as  those  in  frost-pictures,  and  more 
delicate  and  more  permanent  ?  They  were  wrought  out  by  inces- 
sant workings  in  the  fire,  and  on  the  anvil,  under  the  hammer. 
Suffering  makes  a  man,  or  spoils  him.  A  good  many  are  spoiled  in 
the  making. 

In  the  passage  which  we  have  selected  for  our  text  it  is  said, 
"  No  chastening  for  the  present  seemeth  to  be  joyous."  Oh  no ! 
Whenever  you  will  find  an  apple  that  is  ripe  as  soon  as  the  blossoms 
have  fallen,  I  will  find  you  sufferings  that  are  joyous  right  off.  Suf- 
ferings have  to  get  through  their  growth ;  and  they  are  always  sour 
in  growing.  No  cha«tening  for  the  present  seemeth  to  be  joyous, 
but  grievous.  And  it  is  just  as  grievous  as  it  seems ;  but  it  is  not  so 
exclusive  as  it  seems.  There  is  something  else  besides  your  sorrow 
and  afflictions  in  this  world.  If  you  were  to  sit  in  the  edge  of  the 
evening  and  hear  only  the  hootings  of  the  owl,  you  would  not  hear 
all,  nor  the  pleasantest  sounds  that  were  in  the  air.  There  is  the 
whippoorwill  in  the  fields.  There  is  the  nightingale  in  the  thicket- 
There  is  something  besides  owls.  And  if  you  sit  and  only  think 
of  the  noises  which  they  make,  these  will  be  predominant  in  your 
mind ;  but  it  Avill  not  be  because  there  are  not  other  sounds  about 
y»u.  "  No  chastening  for  the  present  seemeth  to  be  joyous,"  not 
only,  but  none  is  joyous.      It  is  grievous. 

^^Nevertheless — .-"'  That  "nevertheless"  always  seemed  to  me 
like  a  golden  door  thrown  open  to  a  man  who  stood  in  a  dreary, 
stained  passage,  and  disclosed  to  him  a  gorgeous  parlor  full  of  all 
brightness  and  beauty.  "Nevertheless,  afterward  it  yieldeth  the 
peaceable  frait  of  righteousness  unto  them  that  are  exercised 
thereby." 

Ah,  it  is  not  dull,  dumb,  stupid  suffering.  It  is  suffering  that 
Btirs  a  man  up.    It  is  suffering  that  digs  wells  of  salvation  in  him. 


TEE  WORTH  OF  SUFFERING.  323 

It  is  suffering  that  comes  like  the  pruning-knife  on  the  vine,  and 
stirs  the  blood  of  the  vine  to  do  a  better  work  than  leaf-makinff.  It 
is  suffering  that  operates  like  a  whip  on  the  child,  that  reminds 
him  of  his  sin,  and  spurs  him  to  action  in  the  right  direction.  It 
is  like  everything  that  stimulates  and  develops  in  life,  to  "them 
that  are  exercised  tliereby."  But  in  those  that  throw  up  their 
hands  and  say,  "All  is  lost!"  suffering  is  only  evil.  To  those  who 
turn  from  it,  saying,  "  Let  me  eat  and  drink,  and  find  pleasure  to- 
day, for  to-morrow  I  die,"  suffering  yields  no  benefit.  Suffering  is 
not  Avholesome  where  it  makes  men  say,  as  the  vulgar  people  of  the 
wilderness  did,  "  In  Egypt  we  had  leeks  and  onions  and  melons, 
and  here  we  are  starving  and  dying."  Is  it  not  better  to  starve  and 
die  as  freemen  in  the  wilderness,  than  to  live  as  slaves  in  Egypt  ani 
have  onions  ?  To  some,  suffering  comes  only  to  make  them  ho^vl 
and  ciy  and  whine,  and  ask  to  know  how  to  get  rid  of  it.  Put  the 
saddle  of  patience  on  your  back,  and  say  to  suffering,  "  Mount  and 
ride  me ;"  and  take  the  bit  in  your  mouth  and  be  "  exercised."  Be 
broken.  Be  trained.  Be  disciplined.  Go  through  the  drill.  Bear 
your  suffering  till  you  know  that  your  are  master  of  it,  as  at  first  it 
was  the  master  of  you. 

There  comes  a  time,  after  anger,  after  despondency,  after  gloom, 
when  one  begins  to  submit  himself  to  suffering.  As  a  dove,  suppos- 
ing himself  to  be  caught  by  the  eagle,  struggles  to  free  himself,  and 
tJien,  looking  up  and  finding  that  it  is  not  the  eagle  but  his  mas- 
ters hand  that  holds  him,  and  knowing  that  it  will  not  be  hurt, 
ceases  to  struggle ;  so  men's  spirits  rise  against  suffering,  and  strive 
against  it  vehemently,  till  there  comes  a  moment  when  there  is  the 
realization  of  divine  grace  and  reconciliation ;  and  then  that  which 
is  meant  by  being  exercised  thereby  is  perfected ;  and  suffering  begins 
to  blossom  into  joy,  and  sorrows  begin  to  die  away  in  pleasures. 

Blessed  are  they  who  have  come  to  that  time.  How  far  off  it  is 
in  obstinate  natures !  Between  the  "  noAV,"  when  suffering  is  "  griev- 1 
ous,"  and  the  "afterwards"  when  it  "yieldeth  the  peaceable  fruits 
of  righteousness,"  there  is  a  very  long  and  weary  way  to  some  peo- 
ple. It  might  be  a  short  way  if  Ave  were  only  Avisely  educated  in 
childhood  in  the  direction  of  spiritual  things.  God's  spirit  is  one 
of  joy,  and  makes  suffering  only  because,  out  of  it,  afterwards,  come 
a  higher  joy,  a  better  manhood,  a  nobler  atmosphere,  a  SAveeter  song, 
and  a  more  heavenly  affection. 

See  also  Avliat  Paul  says,  in  Romans,  on  this  matter : 

"  Not  only  so,  but  we  glory  in  tribulation  also ;  knowing  that  tribulation 
worketli  patience." 

A  person  Avho,  living  in  this  life,  is  carried  along  on  the  smooth 


324  THE  WOETM  OF  SUFFUBIKG. 

river ;  a  person  who  lives  a  beautiful  purple  or  golden  life,  floating 
down  and  down  between  protecting  boughs,  always  tranquil,  ahvays 
calm ;  a  person  who  has  such  a  voyage  in  life  is  not  thicker  than  a 
leaf,  and  is  not  worth  more.  But  men  who  have  been  stirred  up ; 
men  who  have  been  put  to  their  wits'  ends  a  hundred  times ;  men 
who  have  fought  against  despair ;  men  who  have  known  what  it  was 
to  have  their  backs  crack  to  breaking,  almost,  and  yet  have 
shouldered  their  load,  and  carried  it  without  groaning — such  men 
'  have  had  experience. 

Some  men  think  that  experiences  are  like  so  many  plates  that 
may  be  taken  and  set  around  on  a  table ;  but  no,  exj^erience  is  the 
child  of  sorrow.  He  is  a  first-born  son,  worthy  to  inherit  the  blessing. 

But  let  us  see  again  what  it  is  that  Paul  says : 

"We  glory  in  tribulation  also;  knowing  that  tribulation  worketh  pa- 
tience, and  patience  experience." 

Wait  long  enough,  and  have  enough  of  tribulation,  and  then 
will  come  patience.  And  this  patience  will  bring  experience.  We 
go  through  the  door  of  despondency  into  suffering,  and  Ave  come  out 
through  the  door  of  hope.  And  by  this  process  men  grow  more 
manly  and  more  confident.  The  confidence  is  often  a  great  way 
along,  but  it  comes  where  there  is  patience  under  tribulation.  And 
when  I  look  out  and  see  among  my  acquaintances  noble  persons 
who,  having  gone  through  the  experience  of  suffering,  have  attained 
the  fruit  thereof,  my  heart  is  filled  with  joy  and  gratitude. 

Is  there  anybody  who  enjoys  as  much  as  I  do  the  little  children 
on  the  street  ?  They  are  a  perpetual  anthem  to  me.  I  thank  God 
every  growing  year  of  my  life  that  there  is  so  much  that  is  sweet 
and  beautiful  in  childhood !  They  come  to  me  like  so  many  songs. 
And  it  is  not  that  they  are  my  own  or  my  neighbors'  children,  but 
that  they  are  God's  children.  The  street  is  full  of  them ;  and  no 
picture  that  was  ever  painted  is  so  beautiful  to  me  as  the  scene 
which  they  present.  And  when  they  have  passed  from  childhood  to 
youth,  my  interest  in  them  is  not  abated.  It  is  a  joyous  spectacle 
to  see  their  growth  and  development  toward  manhood  and  woman- 
hood. And  is  there  any  one  who  sees  them  when  they  Avalk  to  the 
altar  to  take  upon  them  the  vows  of  the  marriage  hour,  without 
feeling  an  inexpressible  sympathy  for  them.  Not  when  I  lay  per- 
sons in  the  grave,  and  say  the  last  words  of  love  over  them,  is  my 
heart  touched  as  much  as  Avhen  I  pronounce  a  benediction  on  those 
v/ho  are  starting  in  life.  And  yet,  neither  children,  nor  youth,  nor 
.those  who  are  entering  upon  the  full  flush  of  manly  joy,  are  to  me 
half  so  beautiful  as  are  those  revered  persons  whose  faces  are  seamed 
and  marked  with  care,  and  who  have  come  out  sweet-eyed,  having 


THE  WOBTH  OF  SVFFFEIKG.  325 

gone  through  sufiering.  When  persons  have  grown  up,  and  mar- 
ried, and  become  parente,  and  lost  their  children,  or  borne  with  the 
long  infirmities  and  crimes  of  their  children,  and  had  the  weight  of 
life  come  crushingly  upon  them, — but  have  yet  risen  in  the  divine 
strength  above  their  troubles,  and  stand  Avith  their  sufferings  regis- 
tered in  lines  upon  their  forehead,  in  those  lips  uliich  have  lost  their 
fullness  and  pristine  beauty,  and  in  their  gTay  hairs,  with  a  noble 
halo  surrounding  them  in  their  old  age — what  can  be  more  beauti- 
ful than  their  hoj)e  and  sweet  serenity  !  It  makes  us  wonder  that 
the  angels  do  not  take  them  home.  Such  persons  constitute  to  me 
the  highest  ideal  of  earthly  beauty.  And  they  furnish  an  example 
ot  what  suffering  does  if  it  is  only  allowed  to  have  its  perfect  work, 
according  to  the  economy  by  which  it  is  administered  in  the  system 
of  divine  grace. 

Not  only  is  suffering  an  experience  which  works  blessedly  thuS, 
but  in  the  divine  economy  it  becomes  the  very  test  of  love,  the  very 
test  of  heroism,  and  the  very  test  of  Christ's  likeness.  I  do  not  I 
think  it  is  so  much  what  we  are  willing  to  do  for  others,  as  what  we  [ 
are  willing  to  suffer  for  them,  that  tests  how  much  we  love  them.  [ 
You  love  just  in  proportion  as  you  are  willing  to  suffer  rather  than 
that  another  should  suffer.  You  do  not  love  in  proportion  as  you 
feel  happy  in  the  presence  of  others,  nor  in  proportion  as  you  make 
them  happy.  You  may  be  made  happy  by  them,  or  they  may  be 
made  happy  by  3'^ou,  where  no  great  love  exists.  The  proportion 
in  which  you  have  the  real  good  of  a  person,  and  his  true  nobility, 
at  heart — the  proportion  in  which  you  are  yourself  willing  to  suffer 
for  the  sake  of  his  welfare — that  tests  your  love,  and  brings  you 
at  once  into  the  ranks  as  a  follower  of  Him,  who,  "  though  he  was 
rich,  yet  for  your  sakes  became  poor,  that  ye  through  his  poverty 
might  be  rich." 

In  view  of  these  statements,  I  remark,  in  closing : 
.Virst,  that  suffering  is  not  to  be  sought,  as  if  it  were  good  in  and 
of  itself.  All  true  and  beneficial  suffering,  morally  considered,  will 
spring  up  out  of  the  exigencies  of  life,  and  will  adapt  itself  to  the 
actual  states  and  conditions  of  our  mind.  There  is  a  marked  differ- 
ence between  a  proper  spirit  of  self-denial  and  a  spirit  of  asceticism. 
Many  persons  suppose  that  bectiuse  suffering  is  good  under  certain 
circumstances,  it  is  good  under  all  circumstances ;  and  they  deny  I 
themselyes  proper  pleasures,  and  avoid  wholesome  relations  in  so- 
ciety. But  that  is  not  God's  way.  God's  way  is  to  lead  men  to  seek 
joy  and  happiness,  and  to  go  along  in  life  seeking  g,ll  that  life  has 
which  can  be  had  in  consistence  with  their  highest  good.  And 
when  suffering  comes,  springing  out  of  moral  exigencies  or  social  cir- 


326  THE  WORTH  OF  SUFFERING. 

cumstances,  then  is  the  time  to  take  it,  and  bear  it,  and  perfeot  the 
the  charactei'  by  it. 

It  is  not  to  be  avoided,  either,  as  the  greatest  of  evils,  for  our- 
selves or  for  our  children.  It  is  right  for  us  to  select  our  oAvn  path, 
and  to  lay  our  plans  for  our  childrens'  life,  so  as  not  to  bring  a  suf- 
fering upon  ourselves  or  them  by  a  violation  of  law ;  but  to  under- 
take to  build  around  our  children  a  shell  into  which  they  can  draw 
fiiemselves  the  moment  there  is  any  threat,  is  to  make  them  lijttle 
better  than  shell-fish.  To  be  so  placed  that  you  cannot  suffer  is 
almost  to  be  placed  so  that  you  cannot  be  educated.  "We  are  to 
teach  our  children  to  seek  the  noblest  ends  by  the  noblest  ways  in 
life,  no  matter  what  may  be  the  risks  connected  with  those  ways ; 
and  then  they  Avill  be  adequate  to  whatever  exigency  they  may  be 
called  to  go  through.  It  is  not  wise  to  attempt  to  carry  them 
through  shattered  paths.  If  God  carries  them  through  such  paths, 
well  and  good ;  and  if  he  carries  them  through  exposed  paths,  well 
and  good.  The  young  officer,  if  necessary,  bears  his  general's  com- 
mands right  across  the  open  field,  which  is  swept  by  artillery  and 
musketry. 

It  is  best  to  bring  our  children  up  to  courage  and  hardihood,  and 
not  to  think  how  we  shall  save  them  from  suffering ;  for  sufiering 
has  in  it  a  divine  mission. 

I  remark,  once  more,  that  it  is  not  wise,  when  we  are  suffering^ 
to  look  back  too  much  for  the  causes  of  our  suffering,  or  to  question 
what  it  can  have  been  sent  for,  or  why  God  deals  so  with  us. 

Look  at  the  murmuring  of  a  young  mother.  Her  life  was  one 
flush  of  joy  so  long  as  her  cradle  was  to  her  like  the  gate  of  heaven  ; 
but  the  cradle  is  desolate ;  and  she  sits  alone ;  and  she  says,  "  What 
have  I  done  ?  Why  has  God  been  so  cruel  to  me  ?  I  am  as  good  as 
as  they  are  over  there,  and  I  have  lost  my  only  child,  and  they  have 
five  or  six  children,  and  God  has  taken  none  of  theirs.  And  they 
are  not  bringing  up  their  children  as  I  would  have  brought  up  mine." 

Oh,  foolish  creature !  do  you  suppose  all  suffering  is  sent  accord- 
ing to  desert  ?  •  Suffering  comes  as  summer  does.  A  wise  way  to 
to  take  summer  is  not  to  say;  "  I  wonder  if  God  sent  this  summer 
that  I  might  raise  a  hundred  bushels  of  wheat  or  a  hundred  bushels 
of  corn."  Did  God  think  of  any  such  thing  as  that?  No.  He 
willed  it  so  that  you  might  determine  what  should  be  the  results  of 
the  summer. 

Now,  God  puts  yon  under  a  discipline  of  suffering,  and  leaves 
you  to  say,  not  tliis :  "  AVhere  did  it  come  from  ?"  but  this :  "  What 
can  I  do  with  it  ?"  It  is  not  for  you  to  say,  "  Why  was  I  sick  ?" 
but,  "  Having  been  overtaken  by  sickness,  what  can  I  do  with  it  V* 


THE  WORTH  OF  SUFFERING.  327 

We  are  not  to  say,  "  Why  did  I  lose  such  a  friend  ?"  but,  "  Havingl 
lost  such  a  friend,  how  shall  I  be  more  a  man  in  consequence  ?"  Ask  \ 
**  How  shall  I  see  the  bright  lining  that  is  beyond  the  dark  cloud  ?"  1 
In  other  words,  study  suffering  through  the  lens  of  hope.    Look  for-  \ 
ward,  and  not  backward. 

Suffering^niay  be  a  rod  to  chastise.  It  may  be  a  scepter  to  em- 
power. Make  it  a  scepter.  Eule  in  it,  and  rule  over  it.  So  God 
rules  in  you. 

One  Avord  more.  All  suffering  is  in  the  hands  of  the  Sufferer. 
It  is  a  dispensation,  made  up  of  many  parts ;  and  it  is  myste- 
rious because  we  know  only  a  part  of  it.  We  see  only  in 
part.  We  shall  not  know  as  we  are  known  until  by  and  by.  But, 
after  all,  we  are  told  that  God  presides  over  nature,  and  over  provi- 
dence, and  over  grace,  as  a  loving  Father ;  and  Jesus  Christ,  the 
Sufferer,  who  gave  himself  rather  than  that  men  should  die,  stands 
up  to  intercede  for  us ;  and  the  Holy  Spirit  is  set  forth  as  the  al- 
mighty and  ineffable  benefactor.  We  are  carrying  on  our  life  un- 
der the  presiding  counsels  of  a  God  who  knows  what  suffering  is 
good  for,  and  what  it  can  do.  There  is  a  Heart  of  the  universe  that 
is  warm  with  love,  and  that  beats  above  you  with  infinite  sympathy. 
You  have  not  a  God  who  has  no  impulse  to  praise.  And  even  when 
he  blames  he  comforts  and  consoles  you  as  no  mother  ever  com- 
forted and  consoled  her  weeping  child — if  you  will. 

It  is  for  you,  then,  to  take  the  consolations  which  are  in  the 
bosom  of  God ;  it  is  for  you  to  accept  the  mercy  which  he  proffers 
you ;  it  is  for  you  to  avail  yourself  of  the  peace  which  he  gives  you ; 
it  is  for  you  to  gain  victories  over  yourselves  and  over  your  circum- 
stances ;  and  then  it  is  for  you  to  rise  up  and  be  witnesses  before  the 
world  that  it  is  Christ  who  has  taught  you  to  sufier,  and  given  you 
victories  in  suffering.  You  are  bound  to  be  witnesses  that  your 
sti'ength  and  patience  and  wisdom  were  gifts  of  God  through  the 
royalty  of  a  suffering  which,  though  for  the  present  it  is  not  joyous 
hut  grievous,  aftertoards  works  out  the  peaceable  fruit  of  righteous- 
ness. 

When  you  are  old,  and  you  look  back  on  your  life,  and  see  the  b 
suffering  that  you  have  gone  through,  you  will  rejoice  that  you  have  h 
gone  through  it  all.     When  you  look  over  the  rough  ground  Avhich 
you  have  traversed,  and  along  the  thorny  path  which  has  led  you 
up  to  purity  and  faith  and  hope,  you  will  have  the  feeling,  "  Thank 
God  that  I  did  suffer!" 

When  I  look  upon  my  past  life,  I  count  not  those  the  most  for- 
tunate periods  when  I  enjoyed  the  most  at  the  time ;  but  those  when 
I  suffered  the  most  and  was  able  to  beai;  the  suffering.     I  remember 


328  TEE  WORTH  OF  SVFFEBING. 

many  defeats,  and  many  shames  and  humiliations  in  suffering ;  but, 
after  all,  the  times  when  God  strengthened  me  to  bear  it,  and  to  rise 
1 1  above  it,  and  to  make  it  a  wing  by  which  to  lift  myself  up  above  the 
surface  of  the  murky  earth,  are  now  the  most  precious  experiences  of 
my  memory. 

\         May  God  give  you  grace  to  suffer  when  suffering  is  best  for  you. 

j  And  if  you  walk  through  the  fire  and  the  flood  he  will  be  with  you. 
He  led  his  people  through  water  and  through  fire,  and  across  the 
wilderness,  into  the  promised  land ;  and  he  will  bring  you  there  if 
you  will  put  your  trust  in  him.  Live  in  this  life  by  love  and  by 
faith ;  and  you  will  enter  upon  the  life  to  come  with  joy  and  victory. 


PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

We  rejoice,  our  heareuly  Father,  that  thou  art  such  an  one  as  to  be  ap- 
proached b}^  the  imperfect  and  the  sinful.  We  rejoice  that  thou  art  thyself 
a  supreme  and  universal  Remedy  for  imperfection ;  and  that  thou  bearest  in 
thyself  a  love  that  forgives,  that  chastens,  that  purifies.  We  di-aw  near  to 
thee,  not  as  those  who  are  worthy  to  come.  Conscious  of  our  inferiority,  of 
our  infirmities,  of  our  multitudinous  transgressions,  we  draw  near  to  thee 
knowing  how  unworthy  we  are,  but  knowing  how  great  is  that  goodness 
which  we  approach.  We  lejoice  in  thy  benignity.  We  rejoice  in  thy  tender- 
ness and  pity.  We  rejoice  that  it  is  not  inconsistent  with  justice  and  with 
truth  to  forgive  and  to  restore,  and  that  thou  wouldst  not  have  any  to 
perish,  but  that  thou  wouldst  rather  that  all  should  turn  and  live. 

Now,  wc  desire  to  turn  away  from  everything  that  is  wrong,  from  all  that 
which  thou  hast  revealed,  from  all  that  we  have  discovered  in  our  own  ex- 
perience, from  all  selfishness,  from  all  pride,  from  all  evil  passions,  from 
whatever  is  inconsistent  with  truth  and  rectitude.  We  desire  to  heartily  re- 
pent of  our  transgression?,  and  to  begin  a  life  amended  and  aspiring — a  life 
that  shall  bring  us  into  harmony  with  thee  and  thine.  And  grant,  we  pray, 
that  we  may  have  to-day  falling  upon  us  that  inspiration  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  by  which  we  shall  know  that  our  petition  is  accepted.  May  we  follow 
the  light  and  the  strivings  of  thy  power.  May  there  be  that  in  us  which 
shall  call  out,  Abba,  Father.  And  may  we  cling  to  thee  and  to  thy  promises; 
finding  in  that  direction  our  way,  learning  that  our  manhood  lies  toward 
thee,  and  that  our  power  and  our  joy  are  from  above.  And  may  wo  seek 
those  things  which  are  above,  where  Christ  sitteth,  at  the  right  hand  of  God. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  unto  us,  to-day,  thy  presence.  Wilt 
thou  grant  the  ministrations  of  consolation  to  those  who  are  in  trouble. 
Grantlight  to  those  that  are  in  darkness  ;  strength  to  those  that  are  con- 
sciously feeble  ;  direction  to  those  that  are  in  perplexity  of  mind  ;  patience 
to  those  whose  courage  is  ready  to  fail.  Grant  that  they  may  break  forth 
into  joy  who  have  been  desolate;  having  that  comfort  wherewith  thou  dost 
console.  May  there  be  more  joy  than  there  has  been  sorrow  ia  the  etrokes 
with  which  thou  hast  affiicted  them. 

We  pray,  O  Lord  our  God,  that  thou  wilt  grant  thy  blessings  to  rest  on 
those  heads  of  households  upon  whom  thou  hast  laid  the  burdens  of  chil- 


TEI)  WOBTE  OF  SUFFUBING.  329 

c!r,?n.  May  they  have  wisdom  given  them  whereby  to  rear  their  children  for 
Christ  and  for  the  eternal  sphere.  Grant  that  they  may  have  grace  given 
them  that  their  strength,  and  their  courage,  and  their  hope  may  not  fail. 
And  may  they  and  their  children  be  saved  by  hope. 

We  pray  for  all  the  young ;  for  all  those  that  have  been  consecrated  in  the 
public  assembly;  and  for  all  those  that  have  been  consecrated  in  t)\e  closet; 
and  for  all  those  over  whom  have  been  uttered  many  prayers,  and  upon 
Avhose  cradles  have  been  shed  many  tears.  We  thank  thee  that  so  many  of 
thfva.  are  growing  up  in  knowledge  and  truth  and  piety.  We  thank  thee 
that  so  many  of  them  walk  orderly  with  us  in  the  way  of  the  sanctuary. 
We  pray  for  any  that  are  wandering ;  for  any  that  are  in  forbidden  paths. 
Will  the  Lord  God  grant  that  they  may  yet  be  brought  back  to  the 
Shepherd  and  Bishop  of  their  souls.  We  pray  that  parents  may  never  be 
discouraged,  and  give  over  their  children.  May  they  still  wait  upon  disap- 
pointment after  disappointment,  never  yielding  up  their  courage. 

Grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  a  blessing  may  rest  upon  those  who  are  gathered 
providentially  with  us  from  afar ;  upon  those  that  are  going  and  are  begin- 
ning with  high  hope  and  promise.  Keep  them  from  defilement.  Keep  them 
from  stumbling  into  untruth  and  dishonor.  Keep  them  in  that  righteous- 
ness which  is  of  God.  Prosper  them,  not  only  outwardly,  but  still  more  in- 
wardly; and  may  they  have  that  true  manhood  in  Christ  Jesus  from  which  all 
joy  must  spring  that  abides— abides  in  life,  and  abides  in  death. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  thy  blessing  to  rest  upon  all  those  who  are 
endeavoring  to  bear  the  cross  of  Christ,  and  to  fulfill  their  duties  under  dif- 
ficulties and  in  darkness  and  trouble.  May  they  never  be  beyond  the  reach 
of  thy  voice.  May  they  know  how  to  find  thee  in  darkness.  May  they  stay 
themselves  upon  thee  at  all  times  and  everywhere. 

We  pray  for  all  those  who  are  working,  by  self-denial,  by  yielding  them- 
selves willingly,  and  by  sacrificing  themselves  for  others,  to  fulfill  the  royal 
law  of  love.  Bless  them  abundantly  in  their  own  hearts,  and  sustain  them 
in  the  way  ia  which  they  endeavor  to  walk. 

Bless  those  who  are  mourning.  Sanctify  their  sorrow  to  them.  Be  with 
all  those  who  are  now  watching  in  the  midst  of  fear.  Be  in  the  sick  chamber, 
where  thy  servants  are  with  their  children  or  friends.  Be  a  present  help  in 
time  of  trouble.  We  pray,  O  Lord,  that  thou  wilt  speak  in  the  darkness  to 
souls  that  are  alarmed  and  distressed  comfortable  words  of  assurance  which 
they  never  could  hear  in  the  light.  In  the  twilight,  and  in  the  midnight  as 
well  as  in  the  rising  morn,  leave  not  thy  people  nor  forsake  them. 

We  pray  that  thy  judgments  and  mercies  may  strive  together ;  we  pray 
that  the  whole  course  of  care,  and  labor,  and  burden,  and  fear,  and  suffering 
may  interpret  themselves  in  truth  and  Godliness.  May  we  be  able  to  abide 
them  all.  And  in  searching  thy  councils  and  ia  asking  how  we  may  profit 
by  thy  dealings  with  us,  may  we  be  led  on  from  step  to  step  until  we  are 
able  to  realize  that  thou  art  the  Father,  and  that  thy  chastisements  have 
been  administered  through  love,  and  have  wrought  toward  perfection. 

Let  thy  blessing  rest  upon  all  the  churches  of  this  city,  and  of  the  great 
city  near  us.  Wilt  thou  bless  thy  servants  who  minister  in  holy  things.  In- 
spire them  with  more  and  more  wisdom  to  utter  the  truth,  and  apply  it  to 
the  needs  of  men. 

Be  mindful  of  all  those  who  are  laboring  for  the  reformation  of  morals; 
for  all  those  who  carry  the  Gospel  to  the  poor  and  to  the  outcast.  And  may 
all  those  who  build  up  institutions  more  firmly  in  righteousness,  and  those 
who  seek  to  purge  and  purify  the  administration  of  justice,  be  sustained  and 
strengthened  by  the  might  of  God.  Let  human  passions  be  restrained  by 
those  influences  which  are  at  work  for  the  establishment  of  justice  and  recti- 
tude. 


330  THE  WORTH  OF  SUFFERING. 

We  beseech  that  thou  wilt  bless  our  land.  Remember  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  and  all  his  Cabinet  who  are  in  council  with  him.  Remem- 
ber the  Congress  of  the  United  States  assembled.  Grant,  we  pray  thee,  that 
wisdom  may  descend  from  on  high,  and  that  our  counsellors  may  be  recon- 
ciled of  God,  and  that  all  things  which  transpire  may  be  overruled  by  the 
true  prosperity  of  this  nation.  And  we  pray  that  our  prosperity  may  be 
joined  to  the  welfare  of  all  other  nations.  And  in  all  the  earth  may  we  be- 
gin to  discern  the  lineaments  of  that  great  commonwealth  which  shall  exist 
when  all  men  shall  love  all  men,  when  all  the  earth,  beloved  of  God,  shall 
return  the  love  of  God,  and  when  the  new  heaven  and  the  new  earth  in 
which  dwelleth  righteousness  shall  come.  Even  so,  Lord  Jesus,  come 
quickly,  for  the  whole  earth  doth  wait  for  thee. 

And  to  thy  name,  with  the  Father,  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  shall  be  praises 
everlasting.    Amen. 


PRAYER  AFTER  THE  SERMON. 

Our  Father,  wilt  thou  bless  the  word  which  we  have  spoken,  and  grant 
that  it  may  sink  deep  into  the  heart  and  do  good.  We  pray  that  thou  wilt 
open  the  eyes  of  those  who  are  suffering.  May  they  see  the  heavens  filled 
with  the  angels  and  chariots  of  God.  May  they  feel  that  more  are  they  that 
are  for  them  than  they  that  are  against  them.  In  every  hour  of  trouble 
may  they  know  how  to  find  rescue.  May  they  find  comfort  in  the  presence 
and  sympathy  and  power  and  promises  of  Jesus  Christ.  In  the  hope  of  vic- 
tory, in  the  certainty  of  life  and  immortality  beyond,  may  they  find  strength 
and  consolation. 

Grant,  we  pray  thee,  thy  blessing  to  rest  upon  all  the  hours  of  the  day 
that  remain.  Bless  our  homes  and  our  friendships  and  our  aspirations  in 
life.  And  finally  bring  us,  crowned  with  joy  and  victory,  to  our  heavenly 
home,  through  riches  of  grace  in  Christ  Jesus.    Amen. 


XVIII. 

GoD's  Character,  Viewed  Through 
Man's  Higher  Nature. 


INVOCATION. 

Vouchsafe  to  us,  our  Father,  those  thoughts  which  shall  kindle  ours,  and 
those  affections  which  shall  move  us  from  darkness,  and  indifference,  and 
death,  into  life  and  joy.  Thou  canst  touch  the  secret  springs.  Thou  canst 
bring  forth  that  kingdom  which  is  within  us.  We  ask  thy  help  in  reading 
thy  Word,  that  it  may  shine  unto  us,  as  unto  them  to  whom  it  was  spoken. 
We  ask  thee  to  help  us  in  prayer,  that  we  may  find  our  way  to  thy  very  pre- 
sence. We  ask  thy  help  as  we  lift  up  our  voices  in  sacred  song ;  and  may  we 
rejoice  together  in  thy  praises.  Bless  us  in  the  service  of  instruction,  in  the 
meditations  of  this  day,  in  its  labors  and  duties.  And  through  Sabbath  pri- 
vileges of  the  sanctuary,  prepare  us  for  that  higher  worship  in  that  noble 
rest  which  remains  for  the  people  of  God.    And  to  thy  name  shall  be  the 

praise  forever.    Amen. 
18. 


GOD'S  CHARACTER, 

VIEWED 

THROUGH  MAN'S  HIGHER  NATURE. 


"  If  ye  then  being  evil,  know  how  to  give  good  gifts  to  your  children,  how 
much  more  shall  your  heavenly  Father  give  the  Holy  Spirit  to  them  that  ask 
him."— Luke  XL,  13. 


If  one  wished  to  bring  into  contrast  the  God  of  the  material  world 
with  the  God  that  is  revealed  in  Jesus  Christ,  I  know  of  no  other 
passage  that  would  give  a  better  opportunity,  if  taken  with  its  con- 
text. Tliere  is  a  contrast  which  oftentimes  becomes  most  painful 
between  the  God  whom  we  should  believe  in  if  we  interpreted  phy- 
sical, material  nature  only,  and  that  God  in  whom  we  have  been 
taught  to  believe,  and  whose  attributes  are  expounded  in  the  Word. 
One  can  scarcely  conceive  of  things  more  opposite.  To  be  sure, 
science,  alone,  teaches  us  power,  arrangement,  order,  and  therein 
univei-sal  wisdom  ;  but  from  the  course  of  the  world,  and  from  the 
method  of  creation,  and  the  methods  of  procedure,  in  so  far  as  they 
are  applied  to  the  great  elements  of  the  globe  and  to  organized  ma- 
terial nature,  we  learn  nothing  of  the  divine  disposition.  Yet  in 
Christ,  while  we  learn  but  little  of  the  divine  method  in  government 
with  regard  to  the  great  material  globe,  we  are  taught  much  in  re- 
spect to  the  divine  nature  in  regard  to  iiiterior  feelings  and  disposi- 
tions. What  men  call  Nature  Avould  present  to  us  a  god  of  great 
power  and  governing  wisdom,  but  with  no  apparent  heart.  The 
Bible,  on  the  other  hand,  reveals  to  us  God  with  an  infinite 
depth  of  feeling.  And  it  is  this  contrast  of  the  revealed  nature 
of  God  with  that  which  we  find  outside  of  revelation,  that  fills 
many  men  with  wonder.  For,  if  you  accept  the  idea  of  God  as 
revealed  in  Jesus  Christ,  as  a  God  of  j)rovidence,  caring  for  the 
world  and  its  inhabitants  by  grace,  as  a  God  of  tender  disposition — 
of  pity,  and  mercy,  and  gentleness,  and  kindness,  and  love,  and 
helpfulness — and  then  attempt  to  apply  it  to  the  process  of  affairs, 
and  the  development  of  nations,  and  the  course  of  individual  fami- 

SuNDAY  Morning,  Jan  7, 1873.    Lesson :  Luke  XVin.,  1-14.    Hymns  (Plymouth  Col- 
lection) Nos.  132,  805. 


334  GOD'S  CHABACIEB,  VIEWED 

lies,  or  of  persons  out  of  families,  it  is  a  perplexity,  to  say  the  least. 
The  two  do  not  seem,  in  speculation,  to  fit,  or  to  grow  one  out  of  the 
other.  Tliere  seems  to  be  in  nature  no  God  that  has  being.  There 
seems  to  be  in  nature  (speaking  of  the  material  globe,  and  excluding 
man  himself,  of  whom  I  shall  speak  in  a  moment)  absolute  cold- 
ness. In  nature,  none  of  those  methods  by  which  we  are  accus- 
tomed to  have  intercoiirse  with  each  other  are  employed.  None  of 
those  elements  of  pity  which  we  see  mingling  in  human  life  distill 
from  nature  upon  us — or  only  germs,  rudiments  of  them.  In  na- 
ture there  is  no  fruitfulness  except  in  order,  power,  and  such  like 
elements. 

Yet,  in  the  New  Testament,  we  find  all  figures  exhausted  to 
j)rove  how  good,  how  tender  and  how  gentle  God  is.  Tliere  is  noth- 
ing that  man  has  learned  to  esteem ;  there  is  nothing  that  seems 
glorious  in  beauty,  that  has  not  been  appropriated  in  some  form  or 
other  of  parable,  or  symbol,  or  figure,  to  describe  God's  loving  kind- 
ness; and  Ave  come  all  glowing  out  of  the  Bible  with  an  idea  of  God, 
which,  when  we  attempt  to  find  it  in  nature,  is  not  to  be  found. 
The  stars  do  not  show  it,  and  the  earth  does  not  show  it.  We  there 
learn  his  "eternal  power  and  God-head,"  as  the  apostle  phrases  it; 
but  his  heart-ship,  and  soul-ship  we  do  not  find  there. 

The  revelation  of  Christ  as  giving  his  life  for  a  sinful  world,  is 
then,  painted  on  the  background  of  such  a  constitution  of  the  out- 
ward world,  simply  astounding.  The  idea  presented  in  the  revela- 
tion of  God  is  so  utterly  different  from  that  of  the  natural  world, 
the  material  globe,  and  its  administration,  that  when  one  is  set  over 
against  the  other  a  reflective  nature  cannot  but  pause  and  marvel. 
It  is  a  question  of  difficulty,  and  has  been  one  of  perplexity  :  If  God 
be  Father,  where  is  the  evidence  of  it  outside  of  the  statement  of 
the  Bible  ?  If  the  divine  government  is  an  administration  of  love 
and  mercy,  what  mean  all  the  other  tokens  which  the  world  is  full 
of?  If  we  go  out  and  look,  and  see  how  things  actually  are,  in  the 
outward  world,  we  go  from  step  to  step  deeper  and  deeper  into 
trouble.  There  is  blood;  there  are  tears;  there  is  heart-rending; 
there  is  death ;  there  are  separations ;  there  are  disappointments ; 
there  are  revulsions;  there  is  that  awful  and  universal  constitution 
of  pain — pains  that  cannot  bs  numbered,  and  whose  degrees  can- 
not be  measured.  All  the  earth  is  declared  to  have  groaned  and 
travailed  in  pain  until  now.  We  see  this ;  and  from  the  contempla- 
tion of  such  facts,  one  comes  to  the  Word  of  God  which  speaks  of 
the  divine  Being  as  the  infinite  Father,  who,  rather  than  that  men 
should  suffer,  suffers  himself,  bowing  his  head  from  the  eternal  glory 
above,  and  coming  down  to  earth  to  suffer  for  men,  and  with  them. 


THBO UGH  MAN^S  HIGHER  NA  TUBE.  335 

and  showing  them  the  Avay  to  hope,  to  mercy,  and  to  salvation. 
What  is  the  meaning  of  this  contrariety  ? 

The  two  testimonies,  then,  as  to  the  personal  helpfulness  of  God, 
— that  of  physical  nature,  and  that  which  Christ  gives — would  seem 
not  to  run  together,  AVe  are  not  apt  to  suppose  they  do.  The  solution, 
in  so  far  as  it  can  be  found  at  all,  lies,  I  think,  in  Human  Life — in  our 
OAvn  souls  ;  in  our  personal  experience.  Men  talk  of  Nature ;  but 
nature  has  not  been  consulted  at  all  Avhen  we  consult  that  which  is 
outside  of  ourselves  only.  I  have  been  a  part  of  nature,  and  you 
have  been  a  part  of  nature.  It  is  the  testimony,  not  of  the  sky 
and  the  clouds,  not  of  light  and  electricity,  not  of  summer  and 
winter,  not  of  material  bodies  subject  to  material  laws,  that  we 
must  seek.  These  are  only  a  part,  and  the  lowest  part,  the  rudi- 
mentary part,  of  nature.  Nature  means  all  that  the  natural 
world  is,  and  all  that  mankind  are ;  and  the  most  important  part 
of  nature  is  the  liuman  disposition,  human  faculties,  and  human 
life  itself.  "We  are  not  to  say  that  Ave  have  the  revelation  of 
God's  character  in  nature  until  we  have  taken,  not  only  that  which 
we  find  in  organic  matter  and  organized  material,  but  also  human 
experience  in  all  its  various  relations  to  society,  to  the  household 
and  to  individuals.  And  the  final  reconciliation  of  the  problem,  if 
it  is  to  be  found  at  all,  is  to  be  found  in  this  Nature  completed  in 
Man,  and  not  in  nature  outside  of  man. 

The  higliest  part  of  nature,  then,  is  man's  own  experience.  We 
are  to  derive  our  notions  of  divine  life,  not  from  what  we  see  go- 
ing on  upon  the  shell,  but  from  that  which  we  find  evolved 
in  the  process  of  growth  through  which  God  is  putting  the  race 
itself;  from  the  tendencies,  the  drifts,  the  developments  in  hu- 
man lite,  and  the  directions  of  them ;  from  all  those  elements  of 
preciousness,  and  beauty,  and  joy  which  are  evolved  out  of  human 
consciousness.  What  if  electricity  teaches  us  nothing  more  ?  What 
if  there  is  nothing  in  summer  and  winter  which  gives  us  a  know- 
ledge of  the  nature  of  God  ?  There  is  not  the  place  to  look  for  it. 
There  is  another  nature  besides  this  outAvard  nature.  There  is  a 
nature  inside  of  man,  in  the  living  consciousness  of  men ;  and  we 
are  to  go  there  for  facts,  as  much  as  to  the  fields,  or  the  heavens,  or 
the  seasons.  There  we  shall  find  an  evolution  of  emotions ;  Avhere 
did  they  come  from  ?  Why  have  Ave  thought-poAver  that  the  flowers 
have  not  ?  Wliy  have  Ave  emotive  poAver  that  the  insects  have  not  ? 
Whence  came  that  life  Avhich  flames  in  genius,  and  Avhich  pours  it- 
self abroad  in  all  the  munificence  of  beneficence  the  Avorld  around, 
and  has  for  ages  ?  Is  not  that  nature  ?  Are  not  these  facts  Avhich 
we  are  to  recognize,  and  from  Avhich  we  are  to  deduce  some  concep- 


336  GOD'S  CHABACTEE,  VIEWEP 

tion  of  what  tlie  divine  nature  is  ?  Are  we  to  interpret  frona  mat- 
ter, what  God  is  ?     Kot  at  all.    We  are  to  interpret  it  from  men. 

There  is  a  grander  nature  than  animal  nature.  It  is  human 
nature.  In  that  we  are  to  search  for  the  evidences  of  divine  charac- 
ter and  divine  procedure.  Not  that  we  are  able,  as  yet,  to  read  it 
perfectly ;  not  that  we  are  able,  as  yet,  to  frame  a  whole  scheme,  or 
answer  all  difficulties.  For,  we  are  yet  ourselves  so  imperfect,  and 
society  is  so  imperfect,  that  the  whole  of  God,  and  of  what  God 
means,  doth  not  yet  appear,  either  in  the  individual  or  in  the  race. 

There  has  been  a  prejudice  against  what  is  called  anthropomor- 
phism— that  is,  framing  a  conception  of  God  by  borrowing  the  like- 
ness of  man  in  its  more  literal  form ;  the  presenting  God  in  the 
human  form ;  framing  an  idea  of  Deity  from  the  experiences  of  hu- 
man life  and  the  human  soul.  Philosophy  has  often  repudiated  this. 
But  without  it  I  apprehend  there  can  be  no  God  conceivable.  Out- 
side of  that  which  Ave  are  ourselves  experiencing,  or  conceiving 
through  our  own  minds,  there  is  no  knowledge ;  and  if  we  are  to 
frame  a  God  for  ourselves  at  all,  it  must  be  anthropomorphic — that 
is,  one  that  is  to  be  interpreted  fi'om  analogy,  or  in  parallelism,  with 
our  own  nature  and  experience. 

The  great  error  of  anthropomorphism,  or  the  interpreting  of  God 
from  the  experiences  of  human  nature,  has  consisted  in  this :  that  men 
have  ascribed  to  their  Deities  their  lower  nature,  while,  as  yet,  they 
were  undeveloped,  uncuttured ;  Avhile,  as  yet,  they  had  no  moral 
richness  or  excellence.  Men  were  accustomed  to  ascribe  to  their 
Gods,  when  they  attempted  to  frame  them,  attributes  from  the  worst 
of  themselves ;  the  passions  of  men,  their  appetites,  their  rage,  their 
anger,  their  jealousies,  their  lower  nature,  have  been  taken.  The 
mistake  consists,  not  in  inferring  God's  nature  from  something  in 
ourseh'^es,  but  in  taking  the  wrong  part  of  ourselves,  and  interpret- 
ing the  Divine  nature  from  that.  It  is  the  higher  nature  of  man 
that  furnishes  the  ideal  conceptions  of  God.  Without  this  higher 
form  of  anthropomorphism  there  is  no  Christianity ;  there  is  no 
practical  and  comforting  view  of  God ;  there  is  no  companionable 
Fatlier  in  heaven ;  there  is  nothing  left  for  the  heart ;  there  is  noth- 
ing left  to  excite  sympathy ;  there  is  nothing  left  for  love,  for  grati- 
tude, or  sweet  aifection.  God,  thought  of  only  as  he  is  interpreted 
through  the  alembic  of  scientific  research  upon  the  material  globe, 
is  but  an  engineer.  The  world  is  a  mill — not  a  mansion.  It  is  only 
when  Ave  retreat  from  the  outer  course  of  things  to  the  inner — to 
that  which  we  all  admit  to  be  the  flower  of  nature,  man ;  and  man's 
interior,  and  the  best  part  of  it ;  it  is  only  when  we  come  to  the 
least  unfolded  though  the  most  progressive  elements  of  man,  that  we 


TEEOUGH  MAN'S  HIQHEB  NATURE.  337 

approach  the  secret  things  of  nature,  and  have  any  data  by  which 
to  in  terpret  what  God's  nature  is,  and  what  his  government  is  to  be. 
All  that  which  is  best  and  noblest  in  human  experience  in  the  ages 
of  the  world — that  part  of  nature  it  is,  which  furnishes  our  types, 
our  analogies,  our  facts  for  inference. 

Consider,  then,  the  use  which  is  here  made  of  human  nature  by 
our  Saviour  in  the  intei-pretation  of  God.  By  direct  analogy  our 
Master  taught  us  to  infer  the  nature  of  God.  If  a  son  ask  bread  of 
any  of  you  that  is  a  father,  will  he  give  him  a  stone  ?  Or  if  he  ask 
a  fish,  will  he  for  a  fish  give  him  a  serpent  ?  Or  if  he  ask  an  egg,  will 
he  offer  him  a  scorpion  ?  If  ye  then,  being  evil,  being  selfish,  being 
imperfect,  give  good  gifts  to  your  children ;  if  parental  love,  poor  as  it 
is,  is  not  so  poor  but  that  it  will  give  to  the  child  what  the  child  wants 
and  asks  for  within  the  limits  of  his  own  benefit ;  if  ye  being  low 
down  in  giving-power  do  these  things ;  if  it  is  simply  impossible  for 
a  child  to  appeal  to  a  father  or  a  mother  for  necessary  things  Avith- 
out  a  response,  and  without  the  benefit — ^how  much  more  shall  your 
Father  in  heaven  give  you  the  things  which  you  need  and  petition 
for  ?  If  you  give  thought,  and  sympathy,  and  affection,  and  yearn- 
ing and  desire  to  those  that  are  .dependent  upon  you ;  if  that  is  the 
quality  of  human  nature  ;  if  that  is  the  characteristic  of  the  mother- 
nature  and  the  father-nature  ;  if  it  is  that  which  the  heart  tends  to 
do  always,  the  world  around,  alike  among  savages,  barbarians  and 
civilized  people,  among  the  unlettered  and  educated;  if  it  is  the 
universal  tendency  of  parental  human  nature  to  leap  to  supply 
the  want  of  the  child — Jesus  stands  and  says,  "  Your  Father  is  inef- 
fably more  a  father  than  you  are.  If  you,  being  evil,  Ioav,  unde- 
veloped, imperfect  in  every  way,  seamed  and  veined  with  selfishness, 
know  how  to  do  so  much  good,  how  much  more  shall  your  heavenly 
Father  do  good,  giving  the  Holy  Spirit  to  them  that  ask  him  ?" — or, 
as  it  is  stated  in  another  place,  "  Give  good  gifts  to  those  that  ask 
him  ?" 

Hero,  then,  is  our  Master  taking  the  great  facts  of  human  expe- 
rience, and  laying  them  as  a  part  of  the  argument  over  against  the 
divine  nature,  saying,  "  This  which  in  you  exists  in  the  small,  iu 
the  miniature,  in  the  imperfect  condition,  exists  in  God  in  trans- 
cendent measure,  magnified,  augmented,  deepened,  enriched,  more 
fruitful  and  more  powerful."  This  was  the  reasoning  of  the 
Saviour.  Then  he  reversed  it,  and  talked  as  in  the  context  imme- 
diately preceding : 

"  Which  of  you  "  [it  was  when  he  was  teaching  them  how  to  pray ;  and  this 
is  evidently  a  part  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  Luke  gives  one  part  of  that 
eennon,  and  Matthew  the  other  part.  There  are  many  passages  in  Luke 
wliich  go  to  show,  evidently,  to  me,  that  there  are  parts  which  Luke  has 


338  GOD'S  CHAEACTEB,  VIHWJSD 

given  far  more  accurately  than  Matthew.  And  this  Tvas  spoken  after  the 
Lord's  Prayer  was  given].  "  Which  of  you  shall  have  a  friend,  and  shall  go 
unto  him  at  midnight,  and  say  unto  him,  Friend,  lend  me  three  loaves ;  for 
a  friend  of  mine  in  his  journey  is  come  to  me,  and  I  have  nothing  to  set  be- 
fore him  ?  And  he  from  within  shall  answer  and  say.  Trouble  me  not ;  the 
door  is  now  shut,  and  my  children  are  with  me  in  bed ;  I  cannot  rise  and  give 
thee.  I  say  unto  you.  Though  he  will  not  rise  and  give  him  because  he  is  his 
friend,  yet  because  of  his  importunity  he  will  rise  and  give  him  as  many  as 
heneedeth." 

There  is  mercy  even  in  selfishness.    The  man  will  not  give  his 

friend  because  his  heart  springs  up  with  a  desire  to  help  him ;  but 

rather  than  have  the  man  knocking,  and  insisting  upon  the  favor 

being  granted  him  which  he  craves,  and  troubling  him  all  night, 

from  this  selfish  consideration  he  will  give  him  as  much  as  he  wants. 

*♦  And  I  say  unto  you.  Ask  and  it  shall  be  given  you." 
Here,  however,  the  thread,  the  important  connection,  breaks. 
There  is  a  parallel  to  this  in  the  eighteenth  chapter  of  Luke,  which 
we  read  in  the  opening  service,  where  an  account  is  given  of  the 
unjust  judge  to  whom  a  certain  widow  went  and  said,  "  Avenge  me 
of  mine  adversary."  Probably  the  man  of  whom  she  complains  has 
got  her  little  property  upon  which  she  depends  for  her  support ;  and 
she  has  sought  redress,  and  failed  to  obtain  it ;  and  finally  she  goes 
to  the  judge,  and  relates  to  him  her  grievances,  and  asks  him  to 
bring  her  enemy  to  justice. 

"  He  would  not  for  awhile ;  but  afterward  he  said  within  himself.  Though 
I  fear  not  God,  nor  regard  man,  yet,  because  this  woman  troublethme,  I  will 
avenge  her,  lest  by  her  continual  coming  she  weary  me." 

Here,  from  the  meanest  of  all  possible  motives — from  a  sense  of 
comfort,  and  not  from  a  sense  of  justice;  not  because  he  cares  for 
her  suffering,  but  because  he  cares  for  the  suffering  which  he  will 
have  to  endure  if  he  does  not  grant  her  request,  this  man  does  that 
which  is  right.  To  save  himself  from  being  annoyed  by  the  widow's 
importunity,  he  says,  "  I  will  do  it." 

Here  are  the  two  instances :  a  man  will  not  give  bread  to  his 
friend  because  he  needs  it,  but  from  selfish  considerations,  because 
he  wants  to  be  let  alone  so  that  he  can  go  to  sleep,  he  will  give  it  to 
him  ;  and  a  judge  will  not  grant  justice  because  he  likes  to  see  jus- 
tice prevail ;  but  rather  than  be  tormented  by  the  importunity  of 
a  widow  in  trouble  he  will  grant  it. 

Now,  God  is  neither  a  lukewarm  friend  nor  an  unjust  judge. 
He  is  a  being  of  intense  love,  and  intense  justice.  And  shall  not  he, 
out  of  the  plenitude  of  love,  and  justice,  and  mercy,  do  that  which 
you  can  extract  even  from  such  impure  human  sources,  fi'om  such 
low  motives  ?  "  Shall  he  not  avenge  his  own  elect,  which  cry  day 
and  night  unto  him,  though  he  bear  long  with  them  ?  I  tell  you 
that  he  will  avenge  them  speedily." 


TEBO  UGH  MAN^S  HIGHER  NA  TUEU.  339 

In  both  ways,  fhen,  it  is  argued  by  the  Saviour.  From  showing 
how  much  goodness  and  kindness  can  be  got  out  of  a  man's  bad 
nature,  it  is  argued  how  much.of  these  quahties  can  be  got  out  of  a 
man's  good  nature,  and  from  a  man's  good  nature ;  it  is  argued  how 
much  richer  God  is  in  those  directions.  If  we  do  so  much,  hoAV 
much  more  will  he  do  ?  If  we  hav^  the  products  of  the  temperate 
zone  out  of  our  half  developed  affections,  God  is  tropical,  eternal 
Bummer. 

So,  then,  we  have  in  the  actual  use  which  Christ  makes  of  human 
nature  an  ample  warrant  for  employing  it  ourselves,  and  for  infer- 
ring from  it  the  divine  nature,  and  the  divine  government,  and 
the  divine  disposition,  and  the  whole  love  of  divine  grace.  We  are 
to  make  these  inferences,  not  from  our  inferior  experiences,  but 
from  the  best  parts  of  the  human  soul,  acting  in  its  best  moods,  and 
in  its  noblest  ways. 

In  framing  our  ideas,  then,  we  are  at  liberty  to  take  these  best 
things  in  man  as  our  guide — not  man's  institutions,  but  man  him- 
self; not  what  man  has  Avith  ignorance,  and  with  blundering  pro- 
cesses, raked  up  for  himself  as  methods  of  procedure,  but  his  own 
highest  qualities  of  soul. 

1  What  is  human  society  ?  It  is  a  vast  inchoate  mass  on  its  way 
toward  a  higher  state,  full  of  expedients  and  experiments  and  mis- 
takes. And  the  necessity  of  government  is  everywhere  apparent. 
But  the  methods  of  government  are  everywhere  empirical  and 
wretchedly  imperfect.  So  that  government  has  never  done  very 
much  for  the  world.  By  government,  I  mean  civil  government — 
the  government  of  nations — the  government  of  the  masses.  It  may 
be  safely  said  to  be  a  question  for  debating  societies,  whether  nations 
have  not  suffered  from  the  imperfections  and  corruptions  of  govern- 
ment as  much  as  they  have  been  benefited  by  its  protection  and 
general  Avisdom. 

Although  we  may  infer  some  things  of  the  divine  nature,  although 
we  may  help  our  conceptions  of  the  divine  government  somewhat, 
by  the  consideration  of  human  governments,  yet  neither  monarchies 
nor  magistrates  are  the  true  or  appropriate  ideals  from  which  we  are 
to  infer  the  nature  of  the  divine  Being.  It  is  the  individual  heart, 
and  it  is  the  individual  heart  in  those  relations  that  develop  true 
affection,  that  is  the  Moral  from  which  we  are  to  infer  the  divine 
nature. 

We  need  not  fear,  then,  that  we  shall  exaggerate  the  divine  ex- 
cellence. We  never  can  concieve  it  sufficiently.  Men  often  think, 
"  Oil,  if  my  father  were  here,  he  would  do  so  and  so."  "Why  do  you 
not  go  to  God  ?     "  Well,"  you  answer,  "  he  is  divine."    Yes,  he  is  di- 


340  GOD'S  CHABACTEB,  VIEWHB 

vine ;  but  not  in  the  sense  that  he  is  less  good  than  your  father.  He 
is  not  visible  as  your  father  is,  he  does  not  speak  as  your  father 
speaks,  he  does  not  touch  your  hand  as  your  father  touches  it;  but 
in  so  far  as  that  which  constitutes  the  goodness  of  your  father  to  you, 
God  is  unspeakably  more  than  your  father  is.  He  is  richer  in  heart, 
purer  in  sympatliy,  and  more  continuous  in  his  desires  and  yearnings 
for  you,  than  any  earthly  parent  can  be.  His  goodness  exhibits  it- 
self to  your  senses.  It  may,  however,  be  apprehended  by  your  spir- 
itual insight  and  faith. 

Men  feel  that  they  are  to  go  to  their  fellow  men  for  thousands  of 
things,  and  to  God  for  their  salvation.  They  feel  that  they  must 
go  to  their  fellow  men  for  all  helpful  ways,  and  suggestions,  and 
counsels,  and  sympathy ;  but  the  attempt  to  carry  the  minutias  of 
our  lives  into  the  presence  of  our  God,  we  think  would  be  preposter- 
ous. Yet  he  is  concerned  with  the  universe ;  with  all  his  outlying 
kingdom.  Nay,  because  he  is  God,  he  is  able  to  take  in  the  univer- 
sal love  of  God.  The  minutest  things  are  known  to  him.  The  very 
hairs  of  your  head  are  numbered.  And  not  one  of  the  sparroAvs  that 
hop  and  leap  on  the  leafless  trees  or  the  boughs  about  your  house 
shall  fall  without  God's  knowing  it.  But  are  ye  not  more  valuable 
than  many  sparrows  ? 

In  a  sad  hour  I  have  seen,  through  the  window,  mounted  on  a 
rail  back  of'my  house,  one  of  these  curious-eyed  little  sparrows.  And 
he  was  a  better  preacher  to  me  than  I  am  to  you.  It  was  winter,  and 
there  was  not  guaranteed  to  it  one  day's  food,  nor  any  protection, 
from  any  source  in  this  world.  It  was  wholly  dependent  upon  its 
God.  And  yet  it  sang — sang  for  its  own  hearing,  and  sang  for  my 
rebuke,  saying  to  me,  "Are  you  not  much  better  than  I  ?  and  God 
thinks  of  mc,  and  takes  care  of  me."  How  much  there  is  in  the 
voice  of  nature  if  we  only  knew  how  to  interpret  it ! 

You  will  ask,  "  If,  then,  this  be  the  source  from  which  we  are  to  de- 
rive our  ideas  of  God,  and  if  he  is  so  full  of  love,  and  his  kindness  is 
so  inexhaustible,  why  is  it  so  difficult  for  us  to  find  him  ?  I  reply 
that  the  divine  nature  can  only  be  made  known  to  us  through  that 
part  of  our  nature  which  is  like  his.  You  cannot  imitate  silence 
by  making  a  noise.  You  cannot  make  a  man  have  sweet  tastes  by 
giving  him  sour  or  bitter.  You  cannot  take  an  opaque  stone,  and 
with  it  illustrate  the  transparency  of  glass  or  a  diamond.  You  can- 
not by  darkness  imitate  light.  You  must  have  the  quality  itself  that 
vou  wish  to  make  known.  If  that  which  in  God  is  so  precious  were 
a  material  thing,  then  it  might  be  made  known  to  us  through  ma- 
terial organizations;  but  as  God  is  infinite  in  love,  and  beauty,  and 
wisdom,  and  glory,  and  excellence,  he  is  to  be  known  to  us  in  these 


TEBOUGE  MAN^S  HIGHEB  NATUBB.  341 

elements  oy  the  actual  possession  of  the  qualities  themselves,  as  win- 
dows through  which  the  light  of  heaven  shines.  The  windows  in 
us  are  to  be  like  the  heavenly  Avindows ;  and  the  knowledges  that 
come  to  us  are  to  be  brought  out  from  the  very  chords  which  are 
in  our  bosom,  and  which  vibrate  in  us. 

We  are  asking  God  to  reveal  himself  to  the  eye ;  and  no  man  can  see 
him.  We  are  asking  God  to  reveal  himself  through  the  ear.  We  are 
asking  another  personal  incarnation.  We  are  asking  an  impossible 
thing.  We  are  asking  that  through  material  elements  alone  we  may 
have  made  known  to  us  God,  who  is  not  matter.  He  is  formless,  he  is 
the  superlative  center  of  things  effluent,  and  potential,  and  universal ; 
and  our  knowledge  of  him  depends  upon  our  having  something  of 
those  qualities  as  a  medium  through  which  shall  stream  divine  in- 
fluence and  divine  feeling,  and  as  a  foundation  idea  on  u^hich  we  may 
reason  up  to  the  divine  Being. 

I  do  not  believe  any  man  was  ever  lifted  up  to  a  greater  enthusi- 
asm of  self-denial  and  goodness,  but  if  he  did  but  know  it,  he  had 
some  perception  of  what  goes  to  constitute  the  divine  nature. 
When  a  man  comes  into  that  transcendent  experience  in  Avhich  he 
sacrifices  himself  consciously  for  fidelity  and  benefaction,  out  of 
these  noble  and  heroic  moods  of  mind  emerge  the  very  highest  con- 
ceptions Avhich  the  soul  ever  frames.  It  is  in  these  higher  moods 
that  we  discern  God — not  in  the  lower  ones. 

Even  that  part  of  the  mind  which  is  capable  of  understanding 
God  must  be  brought  up  to  a  high  degree  of  sensibility,  or  it  will 
not  receive  the  impressions  of  the  divine  nature  and  spirit. 

The  plate  put  into  the  camera,  in  order  that  it  may  receive  the 
picture  from  nature  must  be  sensitive.  The  daguerrean-plate,  be- 
fore it  is  used,  is  prepared  by  chemicals,  so  that  when  the  light 
strikes  it  there  shall  be  an  impression  made  upon  it  of  the  object 
to  be  represented.  It  is  carefully  hidden  from  the  light  until  every- 
thing is  ready,  and  then,  when  the  slide  is  drawn,  and  the  image  is 
reflected  upon  the  sensitive  surface,  the  picture  is  secured,  and  only 
then. 

Now,  in  regard  to  our  conception  of  God,  we  are  much  of  the 
time  in  a  dull,  clouded  state  in  our  upper  faculties.  We  live  a  great 
deal  in  our  lower  nature.  Our  animal  nature,  for  the  most  part,  is 
in  the  ascendant.  By  a  sudden  impulse  we  are  at  times  enabled  to 
lift  ourselves  up  so  as  to  see  some  faint  conception  of  God;  but  when 
the  interpreting  part  of  our  nature  is  dulled  and  dimmed,  how  can 
we  have  any  interpretation  of  God  in  his  spiritual  feelings  ?  If  these 
are  clouded  and  undeveloped,  where  is  the  medium  by  which  we 
shall  discern  those  things  which  belong  to  the  divine  nature. 


"^^^^ 


342  GOB'S  CHABACTEB,  VIEWED 

In  Italy,  there  were  in  other  times,  when  oppression  had  worse 
sway,  many  men  in  dungeons.  They  were  doomed  to  hve  in  dark- 
ness summer  and  winter,  and  for  many  years,  without  seeing  the 
light  of  tlie  sun.  All  the  glory  of  the  Italian  seasons  poured  upon 
their  prison ;  but  they  never  knew  whether  it  was  night  or  day. 
Down  in  the  depths  of  their  loathsome  dungeons  no  flowers  blos- 
Bomed  and  no  birds  sang.  I^othing  but  spiders  and  their  victims 
crawled  in  the  dank  atmosphere  in  which  they  lived ;  and  they 
knew  nothing  of  the  wealth  which  rolled  over  them — enough  for 
them  there  was,  and  for  myriads  more,  but  untouched  and  unused. 
And  all  the  bounty  and  glory  of  the  divine  nature  rolls  over  men 
who  are  imprisoned  down  deep  in  the  dungeons  of  animalism  in 
themselves — in  the  sensualities  and  materialities  of  their  physical 
lives.  And  when  the  upper  part  of  their  being — that  realm  where 
ere  is  percipience  and  spiritual  existence — is  dark  and  unoccupied, 
ey  being  down  dungeon  deep,  is  it  strange  that  God  is  not  in- 
terpreted to  them  ? 

Nay  more :  if  you  take  one  in  the  care  and  anxiety  and  annoy- 
ance of  business,  when  his  mind  is  perplexed  and  fevered  and  fretted, 
and  ask  him,  "  What  do  you  think  of  Beethoven's  Symphonies  ?" 
He  says,  "  Do  not  talk  to  me  about  Beethoven's  Symphonies.  I  have 
something  to  think  of  besides  music."  When  the  other  part  of  the 
mind  is  exercised,  the  musical  faculties  are  not,  and  cannot 
be,  in  a  recipient  state.  Or,  if  a  man  comes  to  you  when  you 
are  busily  engaged  in  preparing  a  children's  Christmas  tree,  and 
propounds  to  you  a  mathematical  problem,  you  say,  "Away  with 
your  figures.  What  do  I  care  for  them  now  ?"  He  is  not  in  a  fit 
condition  for  solving  such  problems.  His  mind  does  not  run  that 
way.  If  you  want  him  to  work  at  arithmetic,  go  to  him  when 
he  is  in  the  right  frame  of  mind  for  it,  and  not  when  he  is  in  a 
mood  for  frolicking  with  children. 

It  is  a  misery  for  grief  to  hear  laughter ;  and  when  one  is  in  a 
laughing  mood,  it  is  misery  for  him  to  hear  wails.  And  we  under- 
stand how  a  man  must  be  in  a  poetic  mood  to  enjoy  poetry.  A  man  to- 
day goes  into  an  art  gallery,  and  says,  "  I  do  not  think  much  of  those 
pictures."  It  is  not  surprising  that  he  does  not ;  for  he  was  out  all 
last  night,  and  could  not  well  be  in  a  condition  to  appreciate  pic- 
tures. In  order  to  enjoy  music,  or  poetry,  or  pictures,  we  must  be 
in  a  certain  state  of  faculty  which  is  adapted  to  receive  and  appreci- 
ate them. 

Now,  is  it  not  much  more  so  in  regard  to  the  great  spiritual  ele- 
ments of  God's  kingdom  ?  Is  it  not  reasonable  to  suppose  that  they 
cannot  be  understood  when  the  faculties  of  the  mind  are  in  a  low, 


TEEOUGH  MAN'S  EIGEEJk  NATURE.  343 

dead,  cold,  condition  ?  And  is  it  not  the  testimony  all  through  the 
New  Testament  that  they  who  seek  God  shall  find  him  when  they 
seek  him  with  all  their  heart  ?  Does  not  the  command  sound  out 
from  the  New  Testament,  "  Strive  to  enter  in ;  for  many,  I  say  unto 
you,  will  seek  to  enter  in,  but  shall  not  be  able  "  ?  How  can  you 
enter  into  poetry,  music,  or  eloquence,  when  you  are  in  a  carnal 
mood  ?  How  can  a  selfish  person  enter  into  the  sweetness  of  bene- 
volence ?  How  can  hatred  enter  into  the  joy  of  love  ?  How  can  any 
man  enter  into  the  higher  experiences  with  which  we  are  familiar 
except  by  the  intensity,  the  whetting  edge,  of  the  faculty  to  which 
those  experiences  appeal  ?  And  is  it  not  the  testimony  of  the  New 
Testament,  that  if  you  would  see  God  you  must  be  pure  in  heart  ? 

"  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,  for  they  shall  see  God  ?"    "  Without  holi- 
ness no  man  shall  see  the  Lord." 

In  other  Avords,  interpreting  it  in  modern  phrase,  if  you  would  see 
God,  you  must  be  in  those  moods  on  which  seeing  God  essentially  de- 
pends ;  and  those  moods  must  be  acuminated,  sensitized  lifted  to 
higher  forms.     Then  in  them  you  will  discern  God. 

Now,  tell  me,  you  who  complain  that  there  is  no  God  for  you  in 
the  world,  you  who  are  skeptical,  and  doubt  whether  Christians  are 
not  under  illusions,  and  whether  there  is  anything  in  Christianity — 
tell  me,  have  you  ever  been  pressed  out  of  all  measure  by  fear,  by 
grief,  by  sorrow,  by  remorse  ?  Have  you  ever  felt  that  you  had  gone 
to  the  furthermost  bound  of  human  endurance,  when  it  seemed  as 
though  flesh  must  fail  ?  And  have  you  never  in  that  moment  been 
able  to  look  up,  and  feel,  "  Lord  God,  help !"  ?  Has  not  need  ever 
interpreted  succor  ?  Have  there  never  been  moments  when  in  rare 
exaltation  you  have  had  a  conception  of  supernal  kindness  ?  Have 
there  never  been  moments  of  meditation,  of  rapture,  or  poetry,  or 
whatever  you  please  to  call  it,  out  of  which  you  have  interpreted 
the  divine  nature  ?  You  are  disposed  to  call  those  moments  abnor- 
mal ;  but  they  are  the  truest  moments  of  all  your  experiences.  You 
are  disposed  to  call  them  artificial,  poetic,  exaggerated  periods ;  but 
they  are  the  periods  when  you  come  the  nearest  to  the  point  of  ac- 
tual being — the  nearest  to  the  realm  where  the  great  truths  of  crea- 
tion are. 

There  is  something  more  under  God's  eye  and  thought,  I  take  it, 
than  the  terraqueous  globe.  There  is  something  el^e,  besides  stars 
and  constellations.  There  is  something  more  than  physical  quali- 
ties and  material  structures.  The  realm  of  truth  is  a  realm  of 
thoughts,  of  volitions,  of  affections,  and  of  great  potency  in  spiritual 
things.  As  God  is  infinite  in  goodness  and  long-suffering,  glorious 
in  patience,  full  of  transcendent  and  supernal  mercies,  so  in  the 


^44  GOD'S  CHABACTEB,  VIEWED 

great  realm  of  being  there  is  sentiment,  aspiration,  faith,  hope  and 
love.  Everything  is  relative  in  this  world  ;  but  the  apostle,  in  the 
particular  view  he  took,  saw  three  great  absolute,  universal  perman- 
encies— Faith,  Hope  and  Love.  All  prophecies,  all  gifts,  all  methods 
of  education,  all  outward  instrumentalities,  pass  away,  but  these 
great  moral  elements  still  remain.  These  are  substantial  forms. 
The  realm  in  which  they  exist  is  the.  realm  of  heavenly  truth. 
Heaven  is  where  beauty,  and  sweetness,  and  purity,  and  virtue,  and 
love  are;  and  where  the  self-sacrifice  of  love  and  the  fruitfulness  of 
love  abound,  they  shake  down  their  fruit,  and  are  as  the  trees  of 
life  growing  by  the  river  of  water.  These  are  the  attributes  of 
God.  And  he  who  rises  into  moods  in  which  he  can  comprehend 
them,  and  abides  in  them,  and  gives  fervor  and  power  to  them,  is  in 
a  recipient  state,  and  can  communicate  with  the  divine  Being.  But 
in  the  lower  moods  he  cannot  communicate  with  him.  It  is  the 
want  of  spiritual  sensitiveness  that  prevents  this  communion  in  the 
cases  of  many  men. 

Here  we  have,  then,  Christian  brethren,  an  explanation,  if  this 
be  considered  in  some  sort  an  explanation,  of  our  own  experiences. 
We  have  an  explanation  of  how  it  is  that  without  a  gush  of  faith 
and  joy  and  trust  in  God  we  are  in  such  a  state  of  mind  that  God's 
shining  does  not  reach  our  hearts.  Not  that  he  does  not  shine  at 
all  times  ;  but  Ave  are  beyond  the  reach  of  his  influence.  The  sun 
shines  upon  the  slated  roof  and  upon  the  closed  shutters  at  all  times 
when  it  is  unclouded ;  but  it  is  only  in  those  fortunate  hours  or 
moments  when  the  door  stands  open,  or  the  blinds  are  thrown  back, 
that  the  light  streams  through  into  the  inward  dwelling,  though  it 
might  stream  through  at  other  times  if  they  were  open  at  other 
times. 

So  it  is  Avith  the  influence  of  God  in  its  relations  to  men.  It  is 
shed  around  about  them  all  the  time ;  but  the  soul  is  shut  to  which 
it  would  manifest  itself,  and  therefore  that  soul  cannot  have  a  real- 
ization of  it.  The  condition  through  which  it  might  be  brought  to 
the  consciousness  is  wanting. 

This  is  one  of  the  reasons  why  Ave  are  enjoined  by  the  Apostle  to 
pray  always,  and  to  pray  without  ceasing.  This  is  one  of  the  reasons 
why  we  are  exhorted  to  fervency  of  spirit.  This  is  one  of  the 
reasons  of  the  cogency  of  the  exhortations  in  the  New  Testament. 
It  is  only  in  the  higher  states  that  we  can  perceive  and  accept  the 
divine  presence  and  the  divine  blessing ;  and  when  we  are  in  those 
s'ates  Ave  interpret  God  in  accordance  Avith  them,  and  no  longer  by 
the  hand,  or  foot,  or  stomach,  or  by  society  outside  of  us. 

We  interpret  God,  then,  by  the  best,  the  noblest,  the  divinest  ele- 


THEOVGH  MAN'S  HIGHER  NATURE.  345 

ments  that  are  in  us — by  that  part  of  our  nature  "which  is  like  God's. 
And  that  which  interprets  God  to  us  is  to  make  us  sons  of  God. 
Interpreted  thus,  God  is  love.  But  interpreted  by  the  lower  senses, 
and  by  selfish  society  relations,  God  is  a  King,  with  a  sceptre. 
Interpreted  by  the  best  part  of  your  nature,  which  has  the  nearest 
commerce  with  God,  and  which  comes  the  nearest  to  spelling  out 
his  attributes  rightly,  the  word  of  God  is  a  revelation  of  the  divine 
nature.  In  that  word  we  learn  that  God  is  love ;  and  that  perfect 
love  casts  out  fear.  When  we  find  that  out,  we  are  very  near  to 
him.  And  they  are  the  most  orthodox,  the  best  in  disposition,  and 
the  most  richly  endowed  in  spiritual  elements,  who  live  nearest  to 
God,  and  ai-c  most  like  him — understanding  him,  not  by  the  intellect, 
but  by  the  soul.    For  the  heart  is  greater  than  the  head. 

That  we  may  all  of  us  come  into  this  communion  is  devoutly  to 
be  desired ;  but  alas !  we  spend  so  much  of  our  time  and  strength 
upon  our  lower  nature,  that  little  is  left  for  the  higher.  "We  live  so 
much,  for  lower  joy  that  the  higher  joy  is  scarcely  missed.  "We  live 
80  entirely  for  the  body  that  to  the  soul  there  is  no  God,  no  Friend. 
Only  they  can  see  him  who,  by  becoming  like  him,  and  by  the  in- 
tensity of  their  likeness  to  him,  are  brought  into  those  moods 
throng !i  which  God  streams  into  the  soul,  and  stamps  his  image  on 
their  being. 

May  God  grant  to  every  one  of  us  this  power  of  vision,  this  faith 
which  works  by  love,  and  purifies  the  soul. 


And  now,  my  Christian  brethren,  to  help  our  faith,  to  assist  us 
in  this  communion,  we  shall  gather  again,  in  a  moment,  around 
about  the  table  on  Avhich  are  the  emblems  of  the  body  of  Christ 
broken,  and  the  blood  of  Christ  spilled.  Think  not  of  these  carnal 
elements ;  think  not  of  the  body  nor  of  the  blood.  Think  of 
that  love,  that  sympathy,  that  self-sacrifice,  that  holy  fervor  of  desire 
for  others,  which  made  Christ  what  he  was.  The  body  is  merely  the 
hint  of  what  he  suffered  and  of  what  he  did  by  sufiTering.  It  is  the 
door  by  which  we  enter  into  the  inward  life  of  Christ — into  the 
greatness,  the  glory,  and  the  power  of  his  self-sacrificing  life. 
And  with  that  mood,  in  taking  the  bread  and  the  wine,  take 
also  to  yourselves  the  same  life,  Avith  prayers  for  help,  and  with 
prayers  for  forgiveness.  So  commune  with  Christ  through  your  bet- 
ter and  nobler  qualities  that,  going  hence,  you  shall  feel,  "  I  know 
my  God ;  I  am  knoAvn  of  him  ;  and  henceforth  the  life  that  I  live  in 
the  flesli,  I  will  live  by  faith  of  him  who  loved  me,  and  gave  himself 
for  me." 

I  do  not  invite  the  members  of  this  church  alone,  nor  the  mem- 


346  GOD'S  CEABACTJSE,  VIEWED 

bers  of  the  Christian  Church  alone,  to  commune  with  us :  I  invite 
Christians,  whether  they  are  in  church  relations  or  out  of  church  re- 
lations. I  invite  all  those  who  feel  themselves  to  be  'sinful,  and  to 
need  forgiveness.  I  invite  all  those  who  accept  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  as  their  Saviour,  and  are  willing  to  avow  before  men  that 
they  trust  in  Christ,  and  in  his  love  and  mercy,  for  salvation.  If  it 
would  comfort  and  strengthen  you  to  partake  of  these  emblems  with 
us,  joining  in  our  prayers  and  sacred  songs,  I  invite  you,  not  by  au- 
thority of  the  church,  but  by  virtue  of  your  personal  relations  of 
faith  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  On  these  grounds  I  invite  you  to 
participate  in  this  celebration  of  the  Saviour's  living,  and  dying, 
and  again  living  love  and  mercy. 


lEEOUGE  MAN'S  HIGHEB  NATURE.  347 


PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMOK* 

Our  Father,  we  thank  thee  that  thou  hast  gathered,  in  every  age,  thoso 
that  loved  thee  and  sought  each  other's  welfare;  and  that  thou  hast 
had  a  holy  household— a  family  of  faith— brethren  beloved.  And  though 
sometimes  it  has  been  dwindled  and  scattered,  and  almost  gone,  we  rejoice 
that  there  has  always  been  a  seed,  and  in  these  latter  days  the  harvest 
waves  abundantly;  and  that  in  every  land  there  are  those  who  lift  up  holy 
hands  to  thee,  and  hearts  that  love,  and  trust,  and  rejoice  in  the  Lord 
their  God.  We  thank  thee  that  thou  hast  granted  unto  us  the  sight  of  so 
many  who  have  turned  from  selfiskness  and  sordidness,  and  from  this  world 
as  their  whole  good,  to  thee,  and  have  found  in  their  trouble  the  Lord  a 
present  Helper,  in  their  darkness  the  Lord  their  Light,  and  in  their  sorrow 
the  Lord  their  Comforter.  We  thank  thee  that  thou  hast  manifested  thyself 
unto  thy  people,  so  that  by  the  things  that  are  not,  or  are  invisible,  we  have 
been  able  to  overcome  the  things  that  are;  and  that  the  power  and  might 
of  this  invisible  kingdom  augment  grace,  and  make  it  stronger  and 
stronger. 

We  thank  thee  for  all  those  who  have  been  gathered  into  this  church; 
for  all  who  have  borne  faithfully  a  witness  for  Christ,  and  have  at  last  been 
called  home.  How^reat  is  the  number  of  those  who  are  above  us!  How 
great  is  the  number  of  those  whose  songs  roll  over  our  heads  unheard,  and 
yet  are  full  of  melody  and  joy !  And  others  are  passing  on,  and  going 
thither  continually.  We  thank  thee  for  so  many  as  yet  remain,  and  ly  their 
labor,  by  their  patience,  by  their  faith,  by  their  prayers,  and  by  their  fidelity, 
are  witnesses  for  Christ.  And  we  thank  thee  that  there  are  so  many  still  who 
are  being  gathered  into  the  relationship  of  brethren  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  Let  all  those  who,  this  morning,  have  been  brought  into  the  com- 
munion and  fellowship  of  this  church  feel  that  they  are  beloved  of  God, 
and  that  they  may  have  in  themselves  t'je  witness  of  tby  divine  Spiri'. 
May  they  be  able,  not  so  much  to  lean  upon  outward  things,  as  through  these 
outward  things  to  find  their  way  to  the  throne  of  all  grace  and  mercy. 
And  day  by  day  may  they  live  in  the  hope  and  joy  of  the  love  of  God. 
May  they  never  be  in  such  night  that  tliey  cannot  find  their  way  to 
thee ;  nor  in  such  trouble  that  they  shall  not  be  able  to  break  up  from  be- 
neath it  into  thy  presence.  May  their  winters  be  short,  and  their  summers 
long.  Grant  that  they  may  bring  forth  abundant  fruit  to  the  honor  and 
glory  of  God. 

And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  look  in  great  compassion  upon  those  who  have 
been  looking  wistfully  upon  this  solemn  scene  and  service,  long  meaning, 
long  hesitating,  long  yearning  for  the  privilege  of  Christian  life,  and  yet 
doubtful.  O  Lord,  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  speak  comfortably  to  them,  and 
Interpret  thy  will  to  them,  and  give  them  strength  to  do  things  that  shall 
confirm  them  in  the  faith,  and  that  shall  bring  more  and  more  the  power  of 
God  upon  their  heart?  and  upon  their  lives. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  thy  blessing  to  rest  upon  all  those  who  are 
members  of  this  clmrch.  May  they  find  access  to  thee  every  day  in  prayer. 
And  as  the  years  roll  on,  may  they  know  that  they  are  preparing  for  heavec. 
May  their  thought  of  joy  rise  continually.  May  they  have  the  power  of 
heaven  ministered  unto  them.  May  they  know  that  God  is  precious  through 
Jesus  Christ  to  their  souls.  May  they  be  able  to  avail  themselves  of  thy 
strength  and  presence  through  tby  providence  in  life.  May  ttioy  more  and 
more  feel  that  death  is  vanquished.    And  as  they  shall  draw  near,  one  by 

*  Immediately  foUowine  the  reception  of  members  Into  the  church. 


348  GOD'S  CHABACTEB. 

one,  to  the  valley  and  shadow  of  death,  may  they  fear  no  evil,  and  may  they 
awake  in  thine  image,  and  rejoice  forever  with  the  Lord. 

Bless,  O  Lord,  the  labor  of  thy  servants'  hands.  May  all  those  who  go 
forth  to  sow  seed,  sow  in  good  ground,  and  not  be  discouraged.  We  pray 
that  thou  wilt  multiply  the  self-denying  labors  of  those  who  have  denied 
themselves  in  labor  hitherto.  And  may  no  mau  count  himself  his  own ;  nor 
his  time;  nor  his  power.  We  are  bought  with  a  price.  ^Vhether  we  live 
or  die,  we  live  unco  the  Lord,  or  whether  we  die,  we  die  unto  the  Lord. 
And  grant  that  we  may  know  the  preciousness  of  this  truth;  and  the 
Author  of  it.  May  all  our  powers  be  consecrated  to  the  service  of  God,  so 
that  from  day  to  day  we  may  witness  for  Christ. 

Grant  that  there  may  be  found  many  who  shall  go  forth  among  the  poor 
and  the  needy,  as  there  have  been  in  the  days  past,  to  succor,  to  instruct,  to 
comfort,  to  strengthen.  And  we  pray  that  the  power  of  this  church  in  good 
works  may  be  greatly  increased. 

Bless  our  schools  and  our  Bible  classes,  and  all  the  means  that  are  em- 
ployed among  us  for  the  evangelization  of  those  who  are  in  ignorance,  and 
in  unbelief.  May  there  be  given  to  teachers,  and  to  superintendents,  a  great 
power  from  on  high. 

Bless  all  our  social  relations ;  all  our  rejoicings  together ;  all  our  meetings 
for  prayer,  and  exhortation,  and  labor.  And  grant  that  everything  may  be 
sanctified,  and  the  Spirit  of  God  may  dwell  in  us,  and  in  all  our  assemblings, 
that  we  may  not  gather  together  after  the  way  of  the  world,  nor  with  form- 
ality, but  with  the  power  of  the  Spirit,  and  with  the  fullness  of  the  blessed- 
ness of  the  love  of  Jesus  Christ  in  our  souls. 

We  pray  for  those  who  are  benighted ;  for  those  who  are  reluctant  to  per- 
form their  whole  duty;  for  those  who  find  it  not  easy  to  cut  off  the  right 
hand,  or  to  pluck  out  the  right  eye ;  for  all  those  who  come  to  thee,  but  will 
not  take  thy  yoke,  or  bear  thy  burden. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  revive  thy  work  in  this  congregation ;  that 
many  may  be  brought  out  of  darkness  into  light;  that  long- delayed 
duty  may  at  last  be  fulfilled ;  and  that  men  may  rise  up  in  this  beginning 
year  to  take  a  new  course,  to  enter  upon  a  higher  life — to  make  a  noble  con- 
secration of  themselves. 

May  thy  kingdom  be  advanced  in  all  thy  churches.  Wilt  thou  grant 
thy  ministering  servants  more  grace  from  on  high,  and  more  power  in 
the  proclamation  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Christ  Jesus.  And  we  pray 
that  the  love  of  Christ  may  rise  higher  and  higher  to  subdue  all  other  influ- 
ences; and  that  iy  love  and  sympathy  with  thee  men  may  be  united;  and 
that  all  thy  churches  may  join  hands,  that  they  may  advance  with  unbroken 
front  against  the  iniquity  which  is  in  the  world,  and  for  the  spread  of  the  di- 
vine spirit,  and  the  blessings  of  thy  kingdom. 

Now,  Lord,  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  bless  us  in  the  still  further  waiting 
upon  thee;  in  all  the  services  of  the  sanctuary.  Bless  us  this  day  in  our 
homes.  Kindle  in  our  dwellings  the  light  of  thy  presence,  and  the  joy  of 
thy  salvation.  Be  with  us  as  long  us  we  live.  And  when  heart  and  flesh 
shall  fail,  fail  not  thou,  but  be  our  Light,  our  Convoy,  our  exceeding  great 
Joy  in  the  hour  of  departure;  and  receive  us  into  thy  heavenly  kingdom, 
through  riches  of  grace,  in  Chiist  Jesus.    Amen. 


XIX. 

Other  Men's  Consciences. 


INVOCATION. 

Giving  doth  not  impoverish  thee,  and  withholding  doth  not  make  thee 
rich,  O  Lord  God  of  abundance.  Grant,  then,  to  us  mercies  which  we  need, 
and  which  thou  dost  not  desire  to  confer.  The  very  desire  in  us  is  of  thee. 
Answer  thine  own  work,  we  beseech  thee  in  our  hearts.  And  since  thou 
hast  Incited  us  to  cry  out  unto  thee.  Father,  grant  that  we  may  find  thee 
answering  to  our  call.  May  our  souls  to-day  find  their  home;  and  in  the 
hoiisehold  of  God  may  we  find  our  brethren  and  our  Father.  And  here 
may  we  rest  from  every  allurement  ;  from  all  care  ;  from  every  doubt ; 
from  everything  that  hinders  upward  flight.  Here  may  we  look  up  and 
behold,  without  a  veil,  the  glory  of  God,  and  rejoice  in  the  fellowship  of  a 
God  of  hope,  and  wait.  In  sympathy  with  all  the  work  of  God,  and  all  the 
experience  of  the  soul,  may  we  rejoice  as  one  household  to-day,  and  may 
the  services  of  instruction  and  of  devotion  be  profitable  to  us  and  pleas- 
ing to  thee,  through  Christ  our  Redeemer.    Amen. 

19. 


OTHER  MEFS  CONSCIENCES. 


'*  Conscience,  I  say,  not  thine  own,  but  of  the  other,"— 1  Cob.  X.,  29. 

There  is  a  popular  notion  that  in  the  construction  of  the  hu- 
man mind  God  infixed  a  faculty  or  organ  which  is  the  judge  of 
what  is  right  and  what  is  Avrong ;  and  that  it  is  inspired,  in  so^e 
low  degree,  so  that  it  is  an  authoritative  judge.  Conscience  has 
therefore  received  any  number  of  names,  almost  all  of  which  are 
regal.  Sometimes  it  is  called  the  law  of  the  soul ;  sometimes,  the 
light  of  the  moral  nature  ;  sometimes,  <Ae  vicegerent  of  God;  and 
sometimes,  the  revealer  of  truth.  It  is  supposed  to  be  a  voice  of  the 
Divine.  For  all  feelings,  when  they  exist  in  a  large  nature,  and  under 
a  very  high  state  of  excitement,  are  addicted  to  producing  impres- 
sions either  of  sense  or  of  sight".  That  is  to  say,  a  very  high  degree 
of  excitement  causes  the  nervous  system  to  scintillate,  as  it  were. 

Men  have,  therefore,  an  impression  that  the  conscience  is  to  a 
man's  soul  very  much  what  the  head-light  is  to  a  locomotive — a 
strong  light  with  a  reflector ;  and  that  it  throws  a  beam  right  ahead 
in  the  middle  of  the  night,  lifting  the  track  up  clearly  into  the  en- 
gineer's sight,  so  that  he  may  see  the  obstructions,  or  the  track,  as 
the  case  may  be. 

The  conscience  is  no  such  thing.  It  no  more  determines  what 
is  right  than  the  principle  of  taste  determines  Avhat  is  beauty,  or 
than  the  desire  of  acquiring  property  determines  what  would  be 
successful  in  business. 

A  man  desires  praise ;  but  the  desire  for  praise  does  not  interpret 
what  is  praiseworthy.  That  interpretation  comes  from  observation, 
and  from  the  use  of  reason.  The  desire  for  beauty  and  grace  exists ; 
but  what  is  beautiful  and  graceful  is  largely  determined  by  ex- 
perience through  the  use  of  reason. 

Every  social  affection  and  every  moral  sentiment  is  in  and  of 
itself  blind.  There  is  not  one  little  thinking  engine  set  up  in  a 
man's  moral  nature  to  think  morally  for  him,  and  another  set  up  in 
his  intellectual  natui'e  to  think  for  him  about  secular  things.    A 

Sunday  Morning,  Dec.  10, 1871.     Lesson :  1  Con.  VIII,    Hymns  (Plymouth  Ck>lleo- 
tlon)  Nos.  187,  263, 1203. 


352  OTHER  MEN'S  CONSCIENCES. 

mm  thinks  on  moral  questions  with  the  same  intellect  with  which 
he  thinks  about  secular  subjects.  And  what  we  call  conscience  or 
moral  sense  is  a  complex  organization.  It  is  the  sentiment  of  con- 
science harmoniously  educated  and  cooperating  with  a  man's  reason. 
It  is,  therefore,  the  ordinary  thinking  mind,  acting  in  reference  to 
certain  spheres  of  things  in  consonance  with  the  emotion  of  con- 
science, which  is  the  emotion  that  inspires  pain  or  pleasure  in  view 
of  things  which  are  supposed  to  be  right  or  wrong.  And  conscience 
is  so  blind  that  if  you  think  a  thing  to  be  wrong  which  is  as  right 
as  the  throne  of  God,  you  will  feel  bad  in  the  commission  of  it.  And 
if  you  think  a  thing  to  be  right  which  is  as  wrong  as  wrong  can  be, 
that  conviction  being  strong  in  you,  conscience  will  go  on  that  side. 
Conscience  has  no  interpreting  power  except  indirectly.  It  is  the 
reason  that  interprets.  Conscience  follows  with  its  sanction, 
and  stamps  the  decisions  of  reason  with  pleasure  or  with  pain,  with 
approbation  or  with  disapprobation,  when  they  pertain  to  moral 
conduct.  So  that  this  conscience  acts  always,  if  it  acts  with 
any  degree  of  use,  in  consonance  with  the  reason  of  man.  It  will 
always  follow  reason  either  in  its  deductions  directly,  or  else  in  its 
hereditary  and  functional  operations.  The  reason  of  generations 
who  have  gone  before  us  has  determined  certain  things  to  be  right 
and  certain  other  things  to  be  wrong.  There  may  be  variations 
of  conscience,  as  there  are  variations  of  reason.  It  has  always 
been  so. 

If  conscience  is  an  unerring  guide,  how  is  it  that  men  have  al- 
ways been  erring  in  nothing  so  much  as  in  things  which  appertain 
to  conscience  ?  How  is  it  that,  now,  no  two  men  can  agree  on  any 
one  subject  in  all  its  shades  and  applications?  What  is  right? 
Hardly  two  men  can  be  found  to  give  a  common  answer  to  that 
question.  Everybody  believes  that  the  right  ought  to  rule ;  but 
what  is  right  is  always  the  problem.  If  conscience  had  nothing 
better  to  tell  men  than  that  the  right  should  prevail,  it  would  not 
be  of  much  service  to  them.  I  could  have  got  along  without  a  con- 
science to  tell  me  that.  I  knew  it  anyhow.  But  Avhen  in  the  ten 
thousand  complications  of  human  life,  when  in  the  play  and  inter- 
play of  a  hundred  feelings,  I  ask  my  conscience,  "  Now,  to-day,  what 
is  right  ?"  it  is  as  dumb  as  a  bat.  My  conscience  does  not  help  me 
in  this  regard. 

What  do  I  then  ?  I  am  obliged  to  take  up  the  case,  and  think  it 
all  over,  and  put  one  thing  against  another,  and  go  through  such  a 
process  of  reasoning  as  a  lecturer  or  teacher  would  resort  to  for 
the  solution  of  any  philosophic  truth ;  and  so  I  come  to  the  judg- 
ment that,  on  the  whole,  this  or  that  is  right,  for  such  and  such 


OTHER  MEK^S  CONSCIENCES.  353 

reasons.  And  the  moment  I  say,  "  It  is  right,"  down  goes  the  seal 
of  my  conscience,  and  fixes  that  decision.  It  does  not  interpret  it, 
but  it  ratifies  or  enforces  it.     It  is  the  reason  that  determines  it. 

I  may,  perhaps,  be  obliged  to  say,  in  order  to  prevent  mistake, 
that  conscience  helps  the  reason  indirectly  in  this,  that  any  element 
of  feeling  injected  into  the  thinking  part  of  the  mind  strongly 
colors  it.  If  a  man  has  a  strong  feeling  of  mirth  and  it  injects  its 
color  into  the  reason,  the  reason  will  see  mirth,  where  otherwise  it 
■would  not  see  it.  If  a.  man  has  a  strong  element  of  fear  in  him, 
his  reason  will  be  modified  by  the  injection  of  that  emotion  into  it, 
so  that  it  will  detect  a  truth  of  fear  Avhere  otherwise  it  would  not. 
And  so  it  is  with  all  the  other  emotions.  Where  conscience  or  moral 
sense  is  aroused,  it  does  give  a  certain  color  or  quality,  if  I  may  so 
say,  to  the  thinking,  determining  power  of  reason,  so  that  it  becomes 
more  skillful  and  deft  in  dealing  with  moral  elements.  But,  after 
all,  it  is  the  reason  that  determines  what  is  right  and  what  is  wrong,. 
what  is  good  and  what  is  bad  ;  and  conscience  ratifies  the  dtcisicn 
to  which  the  reason  comes. 

!  There  is  an  equally  popular  misapprehension  in  respect  to  the 
nature  of  moral  truth  ;  for  it  is  usually  held  that  there  is  under  re- 
velation a  clear,  distinct,  precise,  sharply  defined,  accurate  state  of 
truth,  so  that  if  a  man  has  a  moral  sense  and  a  well-educated  rea- 
son, there  is  no  excuse  for  him,  and  he  is  blameworthy  if  he  does 
not  understand  the  truth.  It  is  supposed  that  moral  truth  is  as  ab- 
solute as  mathematical  truth  in  physical  things,  and  that  it  can  be 
found  out  and  applied  easily,  in  all  cases,  so  that  there  is  no  need  of 
mistake.  But  moral  truth  is  not,  like  physical  truth,  an  exact 
thing.  It  is  the  most  unfixed,  the  most  changing,  the  most  adapt- 
able and  adapting  of  all  the  things  which  you  can  conceive  of. 

Men  say  that  God  has  given  us  a  revelation  in  which  are  the  great 
elements  of  moral  government — wisdom,  justice,  and  benevolence. 
So  far  as  those  general  terms  are  concerned  we  all  understand  them, 
and  we  all  say,  "  Amen."  But  what  is  justice  ?  Is  there  any  reve- 
lation in  the  world  of  Avhat  it  is  ?  Is  justice  a  thing  that  is  like 
the  ponderousness  of  matter  ?  Can  you  come  to  as  accurate  a  defi- 
^  nition  of  that  as  you  can  of  the  qualities  of  physics  ?  Is  there  just 
the  same  certainty  about  moral  truths  in  their  various  applications 
as  there  is  about  physical  trutlis  ?  We  knoAV,  under  all  circum- 
stances, that  two  and  two  make  four,  whether  the  formula  be 
applied  to  hides,  or  to  stone,  or  to  glass,  or  to  stars,  or  to  devils, 
or  to  angels,  or  to  things  present,  or  to  things  to  come.  And  it  is 
certain  in  respect  to  many  other  collateral  and  physical  truths  that 
accurateness,  dcfiniteness  and  constancy  belong  to  them. 


354  OTHEB  MEN'S  CONSCIENCES. 

But  is  it  so  in  respect  to  all  moral  truths  ?  Can  a  man  find  out 
about' the  truths  of  benevolence,  and  of  mercy,  and  of  humility,  and 
of  meekness,  and  of  gentleness  ?  Are  these  things  certain,  definite 
qualities  or  quantities  ?     No.     Very  far  from  it. 

Men  are  accustomed  to  say,  "  Now,  truth  is  truth."  Well,  in 
one  sense  truth  is  truth  ;  but  in  the  sense  in  which  men  use  that 
term,  nothing  is  so  false  as  that.  They  mean  by  it,  that  truth  is 
always  the  same.  But  truth  is  not  always  the  same.  That  is  to  say, 
it  is  a  series  of  endless  adaptations.  The  statement  of  truth  is  like 
registration  on  a  thermometer,  where  the  mercury  is  going  up  or 
down  all  the  time,  according  to  the  changes  which  are  taking  place 
in  the  temperature.  The  statement  of  truth  constantly  varies 
through  all  the  moods  of  the  atmosphere  by  which  it  is  influenced. 

For  example,  one  would  suppose  that  if  there  were  any  truth 
about  which  there  was  no  doubt,  it  was  the  truth  of  neatness. 
"  Neatness  is  neatness,"  you  say.  I  beg  your  pardon.  What  i3 
thought  very  neat  indeed  in  a  stone  mason's  work  would  be  con- 
sidered very  far  from  neat  in  your  bed-room.  We  judge  of  neatness 
according  to  circumstances.  Neatness  in  a  dye- vat  is  one  thing,  and 
neatness  in  one's  dress  who  is  prej)aring  for  a  party  is  a  diiferent 
thing. 

What  is  humanity  ?  In  a  butcher  it  is  putting  an  ox  or  a  calf 
out  of  life  with  the  least  delay  and  suiFeriiig ;  but  would  that  be 
humanity  in  an  orphan  asylum,  as  applied  to  children  ?  Humanity 
is  adaptable.  It  is  the  thing  that  you  are  doing  which  determines 
what  is  humane  and  what  is  not. 

Speaking  the  truth  is  not  always  the  same.  It  is  oftentimes 
lying,  if  speaking  the  truth  means  producing  impressions  on  the 
minds  of  those  Avho  hear.  A  man  may  convey  an  entirely  false 
notion  by  adhering  strictly  to  facts.  And  oftentimes  a  better  idea 
of  truth  may  be  given  by  telling  a  fairy  story  than  by  stating  facts. 
The  imagination  will  go  further  to  help  a  child  to  understand  the 
truth  than  reason  can.  By  fiction  we  frequently  come  nearer  the 
truth  than  we  could  by  truth  itself. 

And  yet,  men  are  always  saying,  "Truth,  and  justice,  and 
mercy,  and  humility,  and  qualities  like  these,  are  definite  ;  they  are 
something  or  they  are  nothing."  But  the  moment  you  look  into 
them  you  see  that  in  their  very  nature  they  are  variable  and  expan- 
sive, adapting  themselves  to  a  thousand  dispositions,  and  to 
endless  combinations.  In  different  circumstances  they  are  dif- 
ferent. 

We  know  that  kindness  is  scarcely  twice  the  same.  Is  not  the 
mother  when  she  chastises  the  child  just  as  kind  as   when  she 


OTHER  MEW8  CONSCIENCES.  355 

care£S3S  it  ?  And  yet,  how  totally  different  are  the  acts  !  The  feel- 
ing of  the  mother  is  the  same,  but  the  modes  by  which  it  manifests 
itself  are  perpetually  changing.  Do  you  not  suppose  that  the  jus- 
tice which  punishes  is  as  kind  as  the  justice  which  rewards?  Often 
it  is  not ;  but  it  may  be,  and  it  always  should  be.  The  manifesta- 
tions of  justice  differ,  but  the  quality  which  inspires  it  remains  one 
and  the  same. 

It  is  a  part  of  the  moral  constitution  of  the  world,  then,  that  men 
shall  be  exercised  and  educated  in  finding  out  for  themselves  per- 
petually, every  hour  of  the  day,  what  is  right  and  what  is  wrong 
Avith  regard  to  every  element  which  they  feel  or  tliink  or  act 
about. 

If  truth  were  exact,  and  men  once  seeing  it  never  forgot  it,  they 
would  in  a  short  time  perform  like  a  watch.  There  Avould  be  in 
their  experience  no  coming  and  going,  no  oscillating,  no  new 
adaptations,  no  fresh  problems,  no  conditions  special  to  to-day, 
or  yesterday,  or  to-morrow.  By  the  time  they  were  twenty  or  thirty 
years  old  they  would  have  gone  up  in  their  life  in  such  a  way  that 
they  would  revolve  according  to  a  perfect  system,  like  the  wheels  of 
a  watch,  or  any  other  piece  of  machinery.  But  truth  is  not  exact ; 
and  so  there  is  no  such  perfection  in  human  life. 

There  is  no  hour  of  the  day,  and  there  is  no  department  of  life, 
in  which  one  is  not  called  upon  to  think  about  what  it  is  to 
be  just,  to  be  gentle,  to  be  generous,  and  to  perform  duty. 
People  say,  "  Always  follow  duty."  This  is  a  good  maxim ; 
but  it  is  very  much  like  answering  a  man  who  asks,  "  Which 
street  shall  I  take  ?"  by  pointing  in  as  many  directions  as  you 
have  fingers,  and  saying,  "  Take  that."  Duty  is  ubiquitous  ;  it 
is  universal ;  it  is  endless  in  variations ;  and  it  is  well  enough  to  say, 
"  When  you  have  found  out  duty,  follow  it."  That  is  a  wholesome 
maxim.  But  to  say,  "  Follow  duty,"  without  implying  the  finding 
out  what  duty  is,  is  not  rational.  Our  duty  in  life  is  a  tiling  which 
requires  study,  investigation  and  experience  on  our  own  part,  and  it 
Avas  meant  to  bo  so.  Many  people  say,  "  Why  does  not  the  Bible 
settle  a  great  many  points  which  are  perplexing  to  men  ?"  They 
have  an  idea  that  a  book  Avhich  is  inspired  of  God  is  to  be  a  guide 
for  the  settlement  of  any  moral  questions  that  may  arise  in  the  lives 
of  men,  so  that  they  shall  not  have  the  trouble  of  making  inquiries 
on  any  subject  which  concerns  their  higher  interests.  And  they  do 
not  believe  that  it  has  a  different  meaning  under  different  circum- 
stances. But  do  you  suppose  that  God  Avould  have  given  us  a  book 
that  undertook  to  go  into  the  Avhole  genius  of  creation  ?  The  world 
was  not  made  for  any  such  purpose.     You  might  as  Avell  say,  "Why 


356  OTHEB  MEN'S  COKSCIENCES. 

did  not  God  make  a  garden  behind  every  man's  house,  where 
all  desirable  plants  should  come  up  of  their  own  accord,  where  weeds 
should  be  banished,  and  where  everything  should  be  in  perfect 
order,  Avithout  giving  the  owner  any  trouble  ?"  It  might  as  well  le 
asked,  "  Why  is  not  fruit  provided  Avith  wings  like  birds,  so  that  it 
might  fly  in  through  the  window,  and  set  itself  down  on  people's 
laps  ?"  It  would  be  just  as  reasonable  to  say,  "  What  was  the  use  of 
making  things  so  that  we  should  have  to  work  in  order  to  get 
them  ?"  Many  have  the  idea  that,  while  things  in  this  world  were 
being  made,  they  might  just  as  well  have  been  made  plain  to  us  as 
to  have  been  made  obscure.  But  that  is  not  God's  creative  idea,  God 
meant  that  man  should  be  forever  building  himself,  by  thought,  by 
feeling,  by  evolution ;  adapting  himself  to  circumstances;  sharpening 
this  faculty  and  strengthening  that  faculty ;  lifting  up  and  pulling 
down.  It  Avas  the  divine  intention  that  by  an  active  process  of  educa- 
tion Ave  should  be  developed  from  a  loAver  to  higher  state  of  being. 
Therefore  it  is  that  if  a  man  Avould  be  a  sculptor,  or  a  painter,  or  a 
scholar,  he  must  become  such  by  Avorking  out  the  things  Avhich 
belong  to  the  particular  profession  Avliich  he  has  chosen.  We  are 
AVorking  out  ourselves ;  and  everybody  knoAVS,  Avho  has  given  the 
subject  any  thought,  that  the  strongest  men  and  the  best  men  are 
they  Avho,  being  put  into  this  life,  have  Avrought  out  patience  and 
endurance  and  energy  by  the  necessity  which  has  been  laid  upon 
them  to  do  or  to  die. 

NoAV,  in  a  Avorld  Avhich  is  made  on  purpose  to  kill  lazy  folks  and 
to  build  up  industrious  people,  in  a  Avorld  Avhich  has  been  made  like 
a  vast  grinding-stone  on  which  to  polish  and  sliarpen  men  by  attri- 
tions, do  you  suppose  God,  in  giving  us  the  Bible,  has  given  us  a 
book  that  settles  everything  ?  Instead  of  being  such  a  book,  it  is  one 
AA'hich  stirs  men  up,  and  requires  them  to  form  judgments  of  their 
OAvn.  I  Avould  not  thank  anybody  Avho  should  bring  into  my  house 
a  book  that  settled  all  questions  of  casuistry,  an.d  all  questions  of 
morals,  so  that  no  child  Avho  took  it  into  his  hand  should  have  to 
ask  any  questions.  I  Avould  sooner  thank  a  man  for  giving  my  chil- 
dren such  Avealth  and  luxury  and  pleasure  and  honor  as  should  cut 
off  every  motive  Avhich  Avas  calculated  to  Avake  them  up  to  acquire  by 
their  OAvn  exertions  these  amenities  of  life.  That  is  not  the  creative 
design.  It  is  not  the  divine  method.  The  Bible  answers  precisely 
to  the  analogy  of  the  Avorld  into  Avhich  Ave  are  born.  It  is  a  book 
which  contains  a  given  amount  of  instruction  and  stimulation,  but 
Avhich  does  not  take  aAvay  from  us  the  necessity  of  making  an  effort 
to  find  out  for  ourselves  those  things  Avhicli  are  most  vital  to  our 
welfare  both  here  and  hereafter.   And  it  is  an  obligation  which  rests 


OTHEB  MEN'S  CONSCIENCES.  357 

upon  every  man  to  take  his  one  talent,  his  two  talents  or  his  five 
talents,  as  the  case  may  be,  and  go  out  and  make  them  more. 

There  are  some  who  have  an  idea  that  the  Church  of  God  must 
be  a  body  of  men  who  have  infallibility,  who  are  enabled  to  deter- 
mine all  the  issues  of  life,  and  who  understand  the  precise  methods 
of  feeling  and  thinking  and  action.  That  is  what  all  hierarchic 
churches  claim.  And  they  undertake  to  formulate  the  freest,  the 
most  versatile,  the  most  ineffable  of  all  conceivable  things — the  soul 
of  man.  They  undertake  to  reduce  it  to  rules  and  regulations,  so 
that  one  shall  have  before  him  all  the  time  an  authoritative  coun- 
selor or  teacher  as  to  just  what  he  must  believe  or  do.  In  other 
words,  they  undertake  to  institute  a  system  which  shall  breathe  to 
save  men  the  trouble  of  breathing,  and  pulsate  to  save  men's  hearts 
the  trouble  of  pulsating. 

When  men  say,  "  I  am  tired  of  doubts  and  difficulties  ;  I  am  tired 
of  the  splitting  up  of  sects ;  I  am  tired  of  all  these  diverse  and  dis- 
putatious ways  of  coming  into  the  church ;  I  wish  there  was  a  place 
where  things  were  fixed,  so  that  one  could  lie  down  and  rest,"  I  say 
to  them,  "  Go  a  little  further,  and  you  will  save  yourself  all  trouble* 
Go  beyond  the  church  to  the  grave-yard."  There  is  nothing  that  is 
so  settled  and  peaceful  as  death  ;  and  there  is  nothing  that  is  so  dis- 
turbing and  so  wide-awake  as  life.  In  proportion  as  men  go  toward 
authority  they  travel  toward  death.  It  is  not  men  who  are  brought 
up  to  yield  allegiance  to  absolute  authority  that  make  the  most 
valuable  and  efficient  citizens,  however  good  their  intentions  may 
"be.  You  cannot  make  stalwart  nations,  nor  produce  the  highest 
forms  of  civilization,  by  bringing  men  up  in  that  way.  If  you  are 
going  to  have  men  Avho  shall  cut  down  forests,  and  cleave  moun- 
tains, and  tunnel  the  earth,  and  lay  their  hands  on  the  stars,  and 
compel  the  elements  to  serve  them,  you  must,  in  bringing  them  up, 
put  upon  them  the  necessity  of  thinking  for  themselves. 

If  it  is  a  fact  that  tliere  is  no  such  thing  as  an  invariable  com- 
Bcience,  or  an  infallible  moral  sense ;  if  it  is  true  tliat  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  definiteness  ;  if  I  am  correct  in  saying  that  there  is  no 
book  that  is  a  clear  guide  in  all  matters  of  duty  ;  if  experience  jus- 
tifies the  statement  that  there  is  no  moral  economy  and  no  Drganiza- 
tion  in  the  church  by  which  men  can  come  to  an  absolute  cer- 
tainty ;  and  if  it  is  true  that  in  vieAV  of  these  facts  men  are  obliged  to 
think  in  a  vast  realm  of  truth  and  under  a  great  variety  of  circum- 
stances and  conditions,  then  every  one  can  see  that  a  man  cannot 
occupy  any  one  position  with  a  guarantee  that  it  will  always  be  the 
true  one. 

Men  may  all  seek  justice;  but  they  will  rary  in  their  judgment 


358  OTHER  MEN'S  CONSCIENCES. 

a 3  to  what  is  just,  and  as  to  the  proper  methods  of  seeking  it.  Men 
may  be  agreed  that  "  love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law,"  but  in  regard 
to  what  are  the  requisitions  and  applications  of  the  law  they  will 
.vary.  Men  may  agree  that  there  ought  to  be  a  church  government ; 
ibut  they  will  vary  as  to  whether  it  shall  be  Congregational,  or 
Presbyterian,  or  Episcopal,  or  what  not.  They  may  agree  as  to  the 
necessity  of  a  government,  but  they  will  differ  as  to  the  species  of 
government  which  shall  be  adopted.  There  is  a  generic  ground  for 
union  everywhere ;  but  there  is  not  everywhere  to  be  found  a  special 
ground  for  union. 

Now,  what  shall  a  man  do  who  has  his  own  moral  sense,  his  own 
conscience,  his  own  preconceived  judgment  ?  The  apostle  says  that 
every  man  inust  stand  upon  his  own  conscience ;  and  that  that  man 
who  is  without  faith  (that  is,  without  moral  conviction)  is  damna- 
ble— condemnatory.  In  the  New  Testament  the  original  word 
which  is  translated  damnation  has  no  meaning  which  corresponds 
to  that  which  we  have  been  educated  to  associate  with  this  term. 

"  He  that  eateth  and  drinketh  unworthily,  eateth  and  drinketh  damna- 
tion to  himself." 

j  The  word  which  in  this  passage  is  translated  damnation  is  in 
other  places  translated  condemnation.  And  in  this  sense  a  man  who 
is  without  faith,  without  any  judgment  of  his  own,  is  damnable — 
is  condemnable.  Let  every  man  have  his  own  opinion  in  respect  to 
matters  that  concern  him.  He  must  stand  or  fall  individually  by 
his  own  conscience. 

But  that  is  a  question  with  which  we  are  far  more  familiar  than 
with  this  other  question :  What  are  we  going  to  do  Avith  other  men's 
consciences  ?  Thrown  together  as  we  are ;  having  come  from  very 
jdifferent  points ;  having  been  differently  educated ;  being  en- 
dowed with  different  sensibilities ;  being  under  different  influences 
that  are  changing  all  the  time,  men  are  subject  to  a  varying  con- 
science. It  is  not  probable,  if  you  could  accurately  and  sharply 
analyze  and  bring  out  the  moral  judgments  of  men,  that  there  are 
any  two  persons  in  this  congregation  who  on  any  single  point  would 
agree,  so  that  the  judgment  of  one  would  cover  just  exactly  that  of 
the  other,  both  of  them  together  looking  like  one.  You  would  find  a 
projection  here  and  a  swelling  out  there.  They  would  be  essen- 
tially different.  It  is  not  possible  that  any  two  men  should  form 
just  the  same  opinion  respecting  any  one  thing.  For  the  most  part, 
men  form  such  variable  judgments  about  things,  that  their  con- 
sciences jangle  more  or  less.  And  the  question  is.  What  nrj  you 
going  to  do  with  consciences  that  differ  from  yours  ?  The  old 
fashioned  answer  was, ''  We  will  tread  on  them.   We  will  knead  them 


OTEEE  MEN'S  CONSCIENCES.  359 

until  tliey  take  the  same  shape."  It  has  been  thouglit  to  be  the 
business  of  priests  to  take  tlie  consciences  of  men  and  knead  them 
like  so  much  dough  into  church  biscuit.  The  old  idea  of  salvation 
was  that  men  were  crackers,  all  cut  of  a  certain  size,  and  baked  to  a 
certain  dryness,  and  packed  in  church  boxes,  and  kept  there.  The 
old  idea  was  that  when  men  were  taken  into  the  church  they  were 
like  so  many  packages  taken  by  an  express  company,  who  are  bound 
to  see  that  they  are  sent  over  the  road,  and  safely  delivered  at  the 
other  end  of  the  route.  If  that  were  the  true  notion  of  things,  it 
would  be  right  that  we  should  sometimes  take  care  of  the  conscien- 
ces of  men  ;  but  if  men  are  seeds,  and  if  it  is  the  divine  intention,  as 
it  is  declared  to  be,  that  they  should  *'grow  in  grace,  and  in  the 
knowledge  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,"  this  "hemg  the 
very  charter  and  prime  direction  of  life,  then  you  cannot  deal  with 
men's  consciences  in  this  way.  It  is  useless  to  undertake  to  make 
all  men  grow  just  alike. 

I  groAv  a  hundred  kinds  of  flowers  every  summer ;  but  I  never  un- 
dertake to  legislate  for  them.  I  am  contented  that  my  gladiolas  shall 
gi'ow  like  gladiolas.  I  let  my  lilies  grow  as  lilies  should  grow.  They 
both  drink  the  sun,  but  they  do  it  in  a  different  way.  I  let  my 
violets  grow  as  violets  are  intended  to  grow.  I  let  my  oxalis  grow 
as  the  Avood-sorrel  wants  to  grow.  To  the  daisies  on  my  lawn,  and 
to  the  very  weeds  in  my  fields,  I  say,  "  Talic  your  morning  light 
and  drink  it,  and  your  night's  dew  and  imbibe  it ;  and  each  of  you 
grow  by  the  root  as  you  want  to  grow,  and  by  the  stem  as  God 
meant  that  you  should  grow — only  be  Jloicers."  And  they  do  grow. 
And  some  ai'e  flat,  some  are  globular,  and  some  are  tubular.  Some 
grow  on  spikes,  some  on  wide  branches,  some  in  one  way  and  some 
in  another ;  but  all  of  them  arc  flowers,  and  they  all  answer  the  end 
which  they  Avere  designed  to  subserve.  And  I  do  not  know  but  my 
garden  is  as  good  as  it  would  be  if  there  were  only  one  species  of 
flowers  all  growing  the  same  way,  and  on  the  same  kind  of  stalk  or 
Btem. 

As  it  is  in  nature,  according  to  this  illustration  (for  it  is  an 
illustration  rather  than  an  analogue),  so  it  is  in  life.  It  is  not  to 
make  men  specifically  alike  that  we  are  to  work.  It  is  not  to  make 
them,  as  it  were,  so  many  threads,  each  of  the  same  caliber,  and  all 
about  of  the  same  strength,  in  order  that  society  may  be  like  a  piece 
of  cloth  whose  texture  is  the  same  all  the  way  through.  Our  busi- 
ness is  to  make  men  every  one  of  whom  is  an  empire.  We  are  to  use 
society,  but  we  are  to  use  it  as  a  garden.  We  are  to  use  it  as  a  means 
of  bringing  out  the  individuality  of  men.  Thei'e  are  certain  social 
influences  which  are  essential  to  a  man's  wholesome  growth.    Men 


360  OTHEB  MEN'S  CONSCIENCES, 

cainiot  develop  witliout  some  opportunity  for  expansion ;  and 
society  is  a  vast  training  ground.  Tlie  ten  thousand  forces  in  the 
family  and  outside  of  the  family  which  go  to  develop  human  Lfe 
are  all  educating  influences,  which  are  to  be  brought  to  bear  upon 
the  individual ;  and  every  man  is  to  be  stimulated  to  develop 
thought  and  feeling  and  moral  sense  according  to  the  nature  which 
God  has  given  him.  Men  are  to  be  put  forward  so  as  to  cohere  by 
great  generics;  but  so  as  also  to  branch  out  in  specific  directions, 
differentiation  being  a  sign  and  token  of  life. 

There  is,  therefore,  to  be  some  provision  for  men  Avho  are  as  con- 
scientious as  you  are,  but  whose  consciences  differ  from  yours,  and 
sometimes  oppose  yours.  So  what  shall  be  done  with  the  variable 
consciences  of  men  ? 

According  to  the  injunction  of  the  Apostle  I  am  bound  to  pursue' 
certain  courses,  not  on  account  of  my  own  conscience,  but  on  account 
of  other  people's  consciences.     In  determining  what  I  shall  do  in 
my  social  connections,  I  am  to  take  cognizance  of  their  consciences. 

A  good  driver  drives  with  his  eye  on  every  other  driver  in  the 
street.  It  is  not  enough  for  me  to  drive  my  own  horse,  and  take 
care  of  my  own  wagon.  I  must  look  out  for  other  people's  horses 
and  Avagons  as  well.  I  must  make  calculation  as  to  whether  that 
man  who  is  coming  toward  me  will  come  so  near  me,  or  so  near.  I 
must  consider  whether  I  can  best  pass  on  this  side  or  on  that  side. 
I  must  keep  in  view  the  position  of  all  the  vehicles  in  the  street,  and 
act  accordingly.  Unless  I  do  these  things  I  am  not  a  good  driver. 
And  a  man  in  carrying  his  own  conscience  must  consider  the  con- 
sciences of  others.  He  must  see  that  in  following  the  dictates  of  his 
own  conscience  he  does  not  do  violence  to  the  consciences  of  other 
people. 

In  the  fourteenth  chapter  of  Eomans,  and  in  the  eighth  and 
eleventh  chapters  of  1st  Corinthians,  the  apostle  takes  the  ground 
that  you  have  no  business  to  use  your  position  of  light  and  knowl- 
edge to  despotize  over  those  who  are  not  so  far  advanced  as  you  are. 
In  proportion  as  you  are  strong,  you  are  bound  to  think  tenderly  of 
those  Avlio  are  weak. 

The  doctrine  laid  down  is  that  every  man  should  form  a  just 
and  honest  judgment  for  himself;  that  he  should  assert  his  own  lib- 
erty ;  that  he  should  maintain  his  OAvn  personal  rights,  under  all 
circumstances;  and  that  then,  his  own  opinions  being  arrived  at, 
and  his  own  liberty  being  guaranteed,  he  is  to  turn  around,  in  the 
plontitudc  of  his  manhood,  not  to  despotize  with  liis  conscience  over 
otlier  people,  but  to  be  to  them  what  a  nurse  or  a  mother  is  to  her 
children.  Conscience  is  to  move  in  the  sphere  of  love,  and  not  in 
the  sphere  of  authority. 


OJHEB  MBN'8  CONSCIENCES,  3G1 

Men  who  have  a  clear  conscience  of  their  own  must  respect  the 
consciences  of  others  with  Avlaoni  they  differ.  It  was  upon  the  strong 
and  the  clear-headed  that  the  apostle  poured  out  this  exhortation. 
Even  Avhere  men  are  superstitious,  you  are  bound  to  respect  a  super- 
stitious conscience.  Where  men  are  conventional,  you  are  hound  to 
respect  consciences  that  are  conventional.  Where  men  are  but  semi- 
enlightened,  you  are  bound  to  respect  their  consciences — to  take 
them  into  consideration,  that  is. 

In  the  whole  field  of  questions  which  we  shall  now  enter  upon, 
you  must  remember,  first,  that  there  is  no  absolute  certainty  in 
all  cases.  Man  is  a  variable  creature  ;  and  though  there  is  often  a 
presumption  of  certainty,  though  there  is  often  that  which  we  call 
"moral  certainty",  there  is  no  mathematical  and  absolute  certainty 
in  moral  questions.  There  is  but  one  clue  which  never  fails,  and 
that  is  the  one  given  us  in  the  fourteenth  chapter  of  Eomans : 

"I  know,  and  am  persuaded  by  the  Lord  Jesus,  that  there  is  nothing  un- 
clean of  itself:  but  to  him  that  esteemeth  anything  to  be  unclean,  to  him  it 
is  unclean.  But  if  thy  brother  be  grieved  with  thy  meat  [sacrificial  meat], 
now  walkest  thou  not  charitably.  Destroy  not  him  with  thy  meat  for  whom 
Christ  died.  Let  not  then  your  good  be  evil  spoken  of:  for  the  kingdom  of 
God  is  not  meat  and  drink,  but  righteousness,  and  peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy 
Ghost.  For  he  that  in  these  things  serveth  Christ  is  acceptable  to  God,  and 
approved  of  men." 

No  matter  what  church  a  man  is  in,  no  matter  what  creed  is  over 
a  man's  head,  if  he  is  righteous,  if  he  is  full  of  peace  and  joy  in  the 
Holy  Ghost,  if  he  has  these  moral  qualities  in  his  disposition  and 
life,  God  is  satisfied  with  him,  and  men  ought  to  be. 

"  Let  us,  therefore,  follow  after  the  things  which  make  for  peace,  and 
things  wherewith  one  may  edify  another." 

Do  every  man  good  by  building  him  up. 
"  For  meat  destroy  not  the  work  of  God." 

Eespect  for  another  man's  conscience  does  not  forbid  that  I  should 
endeavor  to  correct  his  mind.  It  does  not  forbid  my  laboring  with 
him.  On  the  contrary,  it  invites  instruction.  Nevertheless,  it  is 
often  the  case  that  a  man's  conscience  cannot  be  unfixed.  We  are 
bound,  therefore,  most  tenderly  to  respect  it,  though  we  do  not  be- 
lieve it  to  be  a  good  conscience. 

As  to  religious  observances,  as  to  modes  of  worship,  or  not  wor- 
shiping ;  as  to  church  ordinances ;  in  every  direction,  we  find  the 
Avorld  more  or  less  broken  up.  Men  are  separated  by  endless  ques- 
tions about  religious  methods. 

And  that  is  not  the  worst  of  it.  These  methods,  quite  irrespec- 
tive of  moral  states  and  dispositions,  have  divided,  and  still  continue 
to  divide,  the  great  body  of  non-believers.  One  man  says,  "  There  is 
no  longer  any  Lord's  Day  obligatory  on  me.     I  have  just  as  much 


362  OTHER  MEN'S  CONSCIENCES. 

right  to  go  into  my  yard  and  weed  flowers  on  Sunday  morning  as  I 
have  on  Monday  morning."  And  we  all  stand  at  our  back  window, 
and  hold  up  our  hands  with  horror,  and  say,  "  I  hope  God  will  not 
strike  him  dead  for  working  on  Sunday."  We  have  had  our  con- 
sciences taught  to  keep  Sunday.  Men  say,  "  I  never  see  anybody 
working  on  Sunday  that  it  does  not  give  me  a  shock."  And  does  it 
not  also  awaken  in  you  the  old  ecclesiastical  trait  of  making  your 
consciences  the  judge  of  others'  consciences  in  this  matter  ?  I  have 
a  right  to  say  this :  "  I  think  that  man  is  wrongly  informed ;  I  think 
he  has  misjudged  ";  but  if  I  know  him  to  be  a  conscientious  man,  and 
I  have  reason  to  believe  that  he  has  given  his  attention  to  that  sub- 
ject, and  has  come  to  the  judgment  that  he  has  a  right  to  work  on 
Sunday,  I  have  no  business  to  make  my  conscience  a  judge  of  his. 
I  am  bound  to  respect  his  conscience.  The  apostle  says,  "  Let  every 
man  be  fully  persuaded  in  his  own  mind ;"  but  it  does  not  mean 
that  you  must  be  persuaded  in  your  mind,  and  make  every  one  agree 
with  you.  It  means  that  A  must  be  persuaded  in  his  mind,  and 
that  B  must  be  persuaded  in  his.  And  A  has  as  much  right 
to  his  opinion  as  B  has  to  his ;  and  B  has  as  much  right  to  his  as  A 
has  to  his.  A  is  bound  to  respect  B's  conscience,  and  B  is  bound  to 
respect  A's  conscience.  You  have  no  more  business  to  question  the 
right  of  a  man  to  form  his  own  opinion  in  matters  of  this  kind  than 
you  have  to  question  his  right  to  adopt  a  given  method  of  cooking, 
or  of  conducting  any  other  department  in  the  economy  of  his  house- 
hold. 

One  man  thinks  that  on  Sunday  he  may  ride.  I  think  that  it  is 
better  that  he  should  not.  But  if  he  is  fully  persuaded  in  his  own 
mind,  and  this  is  a  conclusion  Avhich  he  has  conscientiously  formed, 
he  has  as  much  right  to  his  conscience  as  I  have  to  mine;  and  I 
have  no  right  to  punish  him.  I  have  no  right  to  go  around  the 
neighborhood,  as  a  busybody,  whispering  what  I  think  of  him,  and 
Baying  that  he  is  a  Sabbath-breaker.  If  I  should  ride  on  Sunday,  with 
my  conscience,  I  would  be  a  Sabbath -breaker ;  but  if  he  does  it  with 
his  conscience  he  is  not.  A  man  says,  "  I  think  the  ordinances  of 
the  church  ought  to  be  sustained."  I  think  so  too.  But  there  are  many 
who  say,  "  I  do  not  think  churches  ought  to  be  conducted  on  the 
platform  on  Avhicli  you  stand."  They  do  not  believe  in  the  ordinances 
that  I  believe  in.  On  the  other  hand,  I  think  there  are  better  ways 
of  promoting  religious  interests  than  those  to  which  they  hold.  We 
conscientiously  differ  in  opinion  on  these  points.  And  they  have  as 
much  right  to  their  conscience  as  I  have  to  mine.  And  I  am  bound 
to  protect  them,  and  sec  that  they  are  not  scandalized  and  mado 
odious  in  the  community  because  they  have  a  dissentient  conscience. 


OTEEB  MEN'S  CONSCIENCES.  363 

The  reason  why  there  are  so  many  sects  in  tlie  world  is  that  men 
have  been  punished  for  having  honest  consciences  which  were  op- 
posed to  the  consciences  of  their  fellow  men.  They  have  organized 
to  defend  themselves.  And  when  the  time  shall  come  that  a  man* 
being  honest,  and  giving  evidence  of  it,  shall  be  permitted,  with  ten- 
derness and  charity,  to  hold  his  own  opinion  in  the  community, 
there  will  no  longer  be  any  need  of  forming  sects;  for  sects  are 
nothing  but  forts  which  men  build,  in  which  to  defend  themselves 
against  the  intolerance  of  those  from  whom  they  differ. 

That  which  is  true  in  this  regard  is  true  in  regard  to  all  the  ob- 
servances of  religious  denominations.  If  I  were  to  go  into  a  Eoman 
Catholic  church,  I  would  take  off  my  hat,  out  of  deference  to  the 
feelings  of  those  who  worshiped  there,  although  I  do  not  think  I  am 
bound  to  take  off  my  hat  in  any  church.  I  know  it  is  decorous  and 
proper ;  but  I  do  not  think  it  is  a  matter  of  religious  obligation.  I 
do  not  believe  my  dear  God  thinks  whether  I  have  my  hat  on 
or  off. 

Am  I  offended  when  my  child  "comes  in  from  play,  with  red  and 
glowing  cheeks,  running  and  bounding  to  me  in  a  rude  and  boister- 
ous manner,  it  may  be  with  a  stick  m  his  hand  ?  Do  I  not  kiss  him 
and  love  him  just  the  same  as  though  he  were  observing  the  exactest 
rules  of  propriety  ?  I  may  quietly  tell  him  to  lay  down  his  play- 
things, and  not  to  make  so  much  noise,  and  set  him  right  in  those 
respects  ;  but  do  I  make  my  house  as  gloomy  as  a  sepulchre  ? 

A  person  says,  "  My  father  and  mother  before  me,  always,  when 
going  into  this  church,  put  their  hands  into  this  dish  of  water,  and 
crossed  themselves ;"  and  if  I  thought  that  person  would  consider 
me  an  infidel  and  an  abjurer  of  the  Christian  faith  if  I  did  not  put 
my  hand  into  that  dish  of  water  and  cross  myself,  I  would  do  it. 
What !  as  a  testimony  of  my  conformity  to  his  belief?  No  ;  simply 
';hat  I  might  maintain  sympathy  betv/een  him  and  me.  If  I  tliought 
that  there  was  danger  of  his  supposing  that  I  believed  as  he  did,  I 
would  explain  to  him  my  motives.  I  would  say,  "  I  do  not  believe 
•as  you  do,  but  I  conform  to  this  custom  of  yours  for  the  sake  of 
your  conscience."  AVould  I  bow  if  the  Host  were  passing  in  the 
street  ?  That  would  depend  upon  circumstances.  If  men  said, 
*'  Yes,  you  sliall,"  I  would  say,  "  No,  I  will  not.  My  conscience  is 
not  under  authority.  If  I  do  it,  it  is  going  to  be  a  free  gift.  As 
long  as  there  is  a  drop  of  blood  in  me  I  will  affirm  my  manhood.  If 
you  undertake  to  compel  me,  I  will  never  do  it;  I  will  go  to  prison 
first."  Bnt  tlien,  are  there  not  circumstances  in  wliich  I  would  be 
willing  to  do  it  ?  If  I  thought  I  sliould  convey  a  false  impression 
by  doing  it  I  Avould  not  do  it ;  but  if  I  believed  that  no  harm  would 


364  OTEEB  MEN'S  CONSCIENCES. 

be  done,  and  that  a  great  deal  of  pain  and  suffering  would  be  saved, 
by  my  doing  it,  I  would  not  hesitate  to  do  it.  The  Host  is  but  a 
mere  symbol.  I  am  superior  to  any  exterior  thing  of  that  sort.  But 
once  let  me  know  that  I  am  a  man  free  to  do  what  I  please,  let 
me  see  that  I  have  my  liberty,  and  I  will  be  pitiful  and  tender  in  my 
use  of  that  liberty. 

If  a  man  that  is  in  my  employ  is  very  superstitious,  and  observes 
times  and  seasons,  signs  and  tokens,  I  will  use  my  discretion  as  to 
gently  instructing  him  ;  but  I  will  never  rudely  hurt  his  feelings, 
nor  do  anything  to  shock  his  sense  of  reverence,  nor  make  him  feel 
that  I  am  an  infidel,  by  a  violation  of  what  to  him  is  very  sacred.  A 
thing  that  is  sacred  to  other  people  ought  always  to  be  respected  by 
you.  You  ought  to  respect  doctrines  which  other  people  regard  as 
sacred,  though  they  are  not  sacred  to  you.  You  ought  to  respect  the 
views  of  others  in  regard  to  ordinances,  and  days,  and  whatever  else 
they  hold  in  special  regard. 

If  there  had  not  been  such  a  wide  separation  made  in  the  world 
between  gentlemanliness  and  true  piety,  I  should  have  said  that  even 
politeness  would  have  taught  us,  long  ago,  that  whatever  is  dear  to 
anybody,  quite  irrespective  of  truth  or  falsity,  ought  by  us  to  be 
respected  for  their  sakes  to  whom  it  is  dear.  We  are  bound  to  have 
a  kindly  regard  for  the  consciousness  of  men  who  differ  from  us  in 
belief. 

Men  who  are  conscientious  may  be  found  in  every  school  and' 
sect  throughout  the  world.  I  believe  there  are  Brahmins  who  are 
just  as  sincere  as  any  doctors  of  divinity  in  Christendom  are.  I  do 
not  say  that  therefore  we  ought  to  concede  the  truth  of  their  sys- 
tem ;  nor  do  I  say  that  we  ought  to  acknowledge  that  their  worship 
is  as  good  as  ours ;  but  I  do  say  that  w^e  have  no  right  to  oppugn 
them  or  their  system.  We  have  no  right  to  make  any  man — not 
even  a  heathen — odious  for  the  entertainment  of  sentiments  Avhich 
he  conscientiously  holds.  I  am  bound  to  respect  a  man's  conscience 
in  all  the  tenets  which  he  believes  in. 

Although  there  has  been  a  steady  advance  in  the  world  on  this* 
subject,  we  need  a  good  deal  of  instruction  with  regard  to  it  yet. 
Although  the  middle  walls  of  partition  are  breaking  away,  there  are 
vast  heaps  of  rubbish  to  be  removed. 

If  you  go  into  a  village  of  any  considerable  size,  you  will  find 
there  an  Episcopal  Church  composed  of  as  good  and  cultivated 
people  as  there  are  in  the  world  ;  and  you  will  find  alongside  of  thera 
a  P]-esbyterian  Church  composed  of  earnest,  honest,  industrious  and 
excellent  families;  but  you  will  find  very  little  intercommunion 
between  them.     They  may  harmonize  somewhat  in  politics ;  but  if 


OTEEB  MEN'S  COFSCIENCES.  365 

you  go  into  their  households,  you  will  find  that  the  difference  be- 
tween the  modes  of  training  iu  the  Episcopal  Church  and  in  the 
Presbyterian  Church  is  a  reason  of  coldness. 

I  can  remember  the  time  Avhen  a  Calvinist,  if  he  saw  a  Methodist 
come  into  his  church,  felt  it  to  be  his  duty  to  give  him  a  blast — that 
is,  to  bring  out  some  Calvinistic  doctrine  by  which  he  should  show 
his  colors,  as  men-of-war  of  different  nations  run  up  their  colors 
when  they  meet.  And  when  the  Methodist  caught  the  Calvinist  in 
his  church,  he  felt  it  to  be  his  duty  to  give  him  a  broadside,  by  way 
of  paying  him  back.  And  a  similar  feeling  prevailed  in  each  of  the 
other  churches  toward  those  that  differed  from  them  in  belief 

Happily  this  state  of  things  is  dying  out ;  but  is  there  no  such 
feeling  left  ?  Are  there  no  lines  of  separation  existing  in  the  com- 
munity now  ?  Does  it  not  make  a  great  difference  with  the  feelings 
of  many  of  you  toward  a  person,  what  denomination  he  belongs  to  ? 

If  you  look  at  the  feeling  of  good  men  in  regard  to  sects  that  lie 
still  further  from  what  are  called  Orthodox  denominations — the 
Swedenborgians,  the  Unitarians;  the  Universalists  and  the  Quakers 
— is  it  not  true  that  there  is  at  least  a  coldness  felt  and  suspicions 
entertained ;  that  there  is  great  severity  of  language  employed, 
and  that  these  run  past  the  mere  creeds,  and  touch  the  persons, 
and  their  characters  ?  We  hold  it  to  be  impossible  that  men 
who  believe  in  the  doctrine  of  this  or  that  outlying  sect  should  be 
Christians  ;  and  yet,  they  are  as  earnest  and  conscientious  as  we  are, 
and  oftentimes  as  intelligent  as  we  are.  Although  we  are  apt  to 
think  that  we  are  the  people,  and  that  wisdom  shall  die  with  us,  we 
find  people  of  every  shade  of  belief  in  the  community  who  are  fair- 
minded,  upright,  honest  men. 

Under  such  circumstances,  what  are  you  going  to  do  ?  It  is  not 
necessary  that  you  should  endorse  their  creed ;  but  I  say,  and  the 
Apostle  commands  me  to  say,  that  you  are  to  .  spect  the  consciences 
of  men  whose  belief  is  different  from  yours.  And  I  say  that  they  are 
as  honest  before  God  in  selecting  their  opinions  as  you  are.  If  they 
conform  to  the  great  law  of  Christian  charity,  and  the  spirit  of  love 
and  benevolence  abounds  in  them,  and  they  are  happy,  and  are 
makers  of  happiness  in  others,  I  accept  them,  because  I  think  Christ 
has  accepted  them,  and  because  I  think  the  Master's  spirit  is  in  them. 
I  am  bound  to  respect  a  man's  conscience  who  does  not  hold  to  the 
forms  and  doctrines  and  ordinances  and  worship  of  the  church  as  I 
hold  to  them.  I  am  bound,  not  to  treat  him  with  clemency,  not  to 
forgive  him,  but  to  accord  to  him  the  right  to  form  his  own  opinions 
in  accordance  with  the  dictates  of  his  conscience.  And  when  he  has 
formed  his  opinions  thus,  I  have  no  right  to  lay  my  finger  on  hiin 


3G6  OTHEB  MEN'S  CONSCIEyCES. 

for  harm,  or  to  make  liis  lifo  iinliappv,  because  I  do  not  agree  witli 
liim.  I  have  no  right  to  turn  the  public  sentiment  against  him,  and 
make  it  hard  for  him  to  live  in  the  community,  because  he  has  been 
honest  and  independent  in  the  formation  of  his  religious  opinions. 

If  this  is  not  Paul's  theology,  I  might  as  Avell  give  up  the 
attempt  to  find  out  what  it  is.  I  can  make  nothing  else  of  it  after 
an  effort  of  forty  years.  If  there  is  anything  in  it,  it  seems  to  me 
it  is  that. 

"  Him  that  is  weak  in  the  faith  receive  ye." 

"  Ah  yes !"  you  say,  ''  but  you  ought  to  catechize  him."    "  No ! 
no  !"  says  the  apostle. 

"  Him  that  is  weak  in  the  faitli  receive  ye,  but  not  to  doubtful  disputa- 
tions.'" 

I  can  understand  perfectly  well  how,  when  a  cat  sees  a  mouse 
and  is  not  permitted  to  catch  it,  her  claws  and  her  mouth  should 
-v^ork, — her  first  impulse  being  to  pounce  upon  the  mouse  and  convert 
it  into  cat.  And  if  there  comes  into  my  house  a  man  whose  way  of 
looking  upon  religion  is  entirely  different  from  mine,  of  course  my 
first  impulse  is  to  pounce  upon  him  and  question  him.  But  the 
apostle  says,  "  JVo." 

"  Him  that  is  weak  in  the  faitli  receive  ye,  but  not  to  doubtful  disputa- 
tions. For  one  believeth  that  he  may  eat  all  things :  another,  who  is  weak, 
eateth  herbs  [he  is  a  Grahamite].  Let  not  him  that  eateth  [full-fed,  fat, 
happy,  rosy-cheeked]  despise  him  that  eateth  not;  and  let  not  him  which 
eateth  not  [the  spare,  self-denying,  temperate  man]  judge  him  that  eateth." 
One  says,  "  You  are  an  anchorite — you  are  afraid  to  touch  God's 
bounties ;  and  the  other  says,  "  Well,  you  are  a  glutton,  and  are  all 
the  time  over-eating  and  over-drinking."  The  Apostle  says,  "  Be  de- 
cent, both  of  you.  Let  everybody  alone.  Let  each  man  stand  or 
fall  to  his  own  Master.  Be  fully  persuaded  in  your  oAvn  mind — you 
who  think  it  right  to  eat  or  drink,  and  you  who  think  it  best  not  to 
eat  or  drink."  And  then  he  says,  "  Let  everybody  else  respect  them." 
Do  you  think  we  should  get  along  better  if  this  doctrine  were 
practiced  as  well  as  held  theoretically  ?  The  honest  way  to  get 
along,  is  to  observe  such  an  economy  as  is  here  commanded. 
What  a  grand  burst  of  indignation  is  this  : 

"  Who  art  thou  that  judgest  another  man's  servant?  To  his  own  master 
he  standeth  or  falleth.  Yea,  he  shall  be  holden  up :  for  God  is  able  to  make 
him  stand." 

We  do  not  belong  to  any  man,  we  belong  to  God,  and  we  are 

responsible  to  him. 

"  One  man  esteemeth  one  day  above  another :  another  esteemeth  every 
day  alike." 

You  may  reason  around  that  as  much  as  you  please,  but  it  means 
Sunday.  You  cannot  squeeze  out  of  it.  One  man  esteems  Sunday, 
and  another  man  esteems  every  day  alike. 


OTEEB  ME^'S  CONSCIENCES.  367 

"  Let  every  man  be  fully  persuaded  in  his  own  mind.  He  that  regardeth 
the  day,  regai'deth  it  unto  the  Lord  ;  and  he  that  regardeth  not  the  day,  to 
the  Lord  he  doth  not  regard  it.  He  that  eateth,eateth  to  the  Lord,  for  he 
giveth  God  thanks  ;  and  he  that  eateth  not,  to  the  Lord  he  eateth  not,  and 
giveth  God  thanks.  For  none  of  us  liveth  to  himself,  and  no  man  dieth  to 
himself.  For  whether  we  live,  we  live  unto  the  Lord ;  and  whether  we  die, 
we  die  unto  the  Lord  :  whether  we  live,  therefore,  or  die,  we  are  the 
Lord's." 

Since  I  am  God's,  no  man  owns  me,  or  my  reason,  or  my  con- 
science. 

"  For  to  this  end  Christ  both  died,  and  rose,  and  revived,  that  he  might  be 
Lord  both  of  the  dead  and  living.  But  why  dost  thou  judge  thy  brother  ?  or 
why  dost  thou  set  at  nought  thy  brother?  For  we  shall  all  stand  before  the 
judgment-seat  of  Christ.  For  it  is  written,  As  I  live,  saith  the  Lord,  every 
knee  shall  bow  to  me,  and  every  tongue  shall  confess  to  God.  So  then,  every 
one  of  us  shall  give  account  of  himself  to  God." 

.    My  priest  is  not  going  to  tell  anything  about  me.    My  bishop  is 

not  going  to  have  anything  to  say  at  the  judgment-seat  except  about 

himself.    My  pope  cannot  open  his  mouth  but  to  say,  "  God  be 

merciful  to  me  a  sinner." 

"  Let  us  not  therefore  Judge  one  another  any  more ;  but  judge  this 
rather,  that  no  man  put  a.  stumbling-block  or  on  occasion  to  fail  in  hia 
brother's  way." 


OTHER  MEN'S  CONSCIENCES, 


PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

Thou  hast  encouraged  us  to  draw  near  to  thee,  our  Father,  by  all  words 
of  persuasion,  and  by  promises  full  and  various,  that  meet  all  our  wants. 
And  We  are  brought  near  to  thee,  too,  by  the  memory  of  prayers  fulfilled. 
Thou  tiast  filled  us  even  at  the  mercy-seat.  We  have  come  to  thee  as  thirsty 
men  go  to  a  fountain,  and  quenched  our  thirst.  We  have  come  hungry, 
and  been  fed  from  thy  table.  We  have  come  obscure,  dim-eyed,  uncertain, 
and  I  he  vision  of  the  glory  of  God  has  risen  upon  us,  and  we  have  gone  away 
in  a  blessed  certitude  of  thy  love  and  power.  We  have  come  dark,  filled 
with  doubts,  and  swinging  with  wide  oscillation  in  uncertainties,  and  thou 
hast  put  the  staff  into  our  hand,  thou  hast  put  our  feet  into  the  straight  and 
narrow  path,  and  we  have  walked  securely,  and  found  the  King's  provision 
along  the  highway  cast  up  for  the  ransomed  of  the  Lord  to  return  and  come 
to  Zion  thereon.  We  rejoice  in  the  memory  of  prayers  answered.  We 
rejoice  in  the  secret  associations  that  hover  about  the  act  of  prayer.  We 
thank  thee  that  so  many  of  us  can  remember  praying  mothers.  We  rejoice 
that  so  many  of  us  can  go  back,  in  our  most  thoughtful  hours,  and  hav6 
recollections  of  a  home  that  was  perfumed  with  prayer,  in  which  morning 
and  evening  sacrifice  went  up,  and  in  which  those  dear  to  us  stood  between 
us  and  God  to  lift  our  thoughts  toward  him.  We  beseech  of  thee  that  we 
may  be  sustained  by  the  same  promises  which  enabled  them  to  endure  unto 
the  end.  We  are  pilgrims  on  the  same  road  which  our  fathers  traveled ;  and 
we  need  the  same  faith  in  thee,  and  in  thy  wisdom,  and  in  thy  care  and 
guardianship  which  they  had.  We  need  access  to  thee  as  they  had  it.  For 
our  sorrows  are  not  ended.  We,  too,  are  children  of  the  dust,  and  afflictions 
come  to  us,  and  the  bitter  cup  is  put  into  our  hand;  and  we  cannot  get 
along  without  some  God  of  compassion  and  gentlenesss  and  mercy. 

We  thank  thee,  O  Lord,  that  there  are  so  many  witnesses  in  thy  presence 
to  thy  faithfulness  to  prayer.  It  is  not  in  vain  that  we  ask  thee.  How 
many  know  the  pleasure  and  blessed  privilege  of  calling  upon  thy  name  I 

And  now,  we  pray  for  all  in  thy  presence,  that  their  hearts  may  be  opened 
this  morning.  May  we  be  able  to  confess  our  sins  secretly  to  thee,  acknowl- 
edging our  transgression  and  oiu'  unworthiness.  Lord,  we  pray  thy  king- 
dom to  come  for  the  forgiveness  of  our  sins  that  are  passed.  We  pray  that 
we  may  be  healed  in  all  those  fountains  from  which  sins  have  proceeded. 
May  we  be  strengthened  where  we  are  weak,  and  weakened  where  we  are 
over-strong  and  impetuous.  And  may  we  have  not  only  a  sense  of  the  peace 
which  comes  from  pardon,  but  a  sense  of  the  peace  which  comes  from 
strength  to  live  more  worthy  of  Him  whose  name  we  bear. 

We  pray  for  those  who  are  this  morning  discouraged.  We  pray  for  those 
whose  eyes  are  turned  upon  the  ground  from  whence  comes  no  help.  We 
pray  for  those  out  of  whose  lieaven  the  stars  have  gone.  We  pray  for  those 
that  are  without  hope  and  without  God  in  this  world.  Have  compassion 
upon  them.  And  in  their  night,  even  if  it  be  the  night  which  their  own  sins 
and  faults  have  brought  upon  them,  look,  thou  merciful,  sacrificing  High 
Priest,  upon  them ;  and  from  thine  own  heart  breathe  out  influences  that 
shall  cheer  them,  inspire  them,  and  lift  them  out  of  despondency  into  the 
clear  lisht  of  hope..  Is  tliere  no  star  of  morning  for  them  ?  Must  they  abide 
as  the  childrea  of  dai'knoss  forever? 

O  Lord,  We  beseech  of  thee  that  thou  wilt  look  graciously  upon  all  those 
whose  hearts  torment  them  v/ith  the  memory  of  joys  that  are  gone,  and  with 
sorrows  ever  present.  We  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  unto  thero.  that  conso- 
lation, tliat  comfort  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  liath  been  fulfilled  so  often  to 
many  of  thy  servants  upon  the  earth.    May  they  cease  to  mourn  the  de- 


OTHEB  MEN^S  CONSCIENCES.  869 

parted.  May  they  cease  to  question  any  more  thy  providence.  May  they 
cease  to  wonder,  to  marvel,  and  to  turn  from  their  sorrow  again  and 
again,  always  acuminated.  We  pray,  O  Lord,  that  thou  wilt  grant  that 
they  may  stay  themselves  upon  thee,  and  wait  with  sweetness  of  heart  and 
patience  of  mind  until  the  day  when  thou  shalt  make  plain  the  true  passages 
of  their  earthly  history. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  thy  blessing  upon  all  those  who  are  bearins 
the  heat  and  the  burden  of  the  day  in  the  discbarge  of  their  duties  to  their 
households  and  to  the  society  in  which  they  live.  May  they  be  sustained  by 
thy  conscious  presence,  and  by  a  realization  of  thy  grace  and  love.  We 
pray  that  thou  wilt  help  them  both  to  love  more  and  more  the  world  while 
they  are  living  in  it,  and  to  strengthen  the  things  that  are  correct,  that  they 
may  carry  out  the  things  which  shall  benefit  mankind,  and  that  when  they 
shall  depart  from  the  earth,  they  shall  have  been  missionaries  of  a  better 
truth,  of  a  better  justice,  and  of  a  purer  conscience. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  bless  those  who  are  seeking,  even  in  the  least 
things,  to  do  better.  Help  them ;  and  may  the  faintest  germ  of  that  which 
is  right  have  the  nourishment  of  thine  inspiration.  And  grant,  we  pray 
thee,  that  there  may  come  forth,  at  last,  out  of  those  who  are  cast  away, 
some  valuable  thing— some  root  not  out  of  a  dry  ground;  some  bud,  some 
blossom,  which  shall  bear  fruit. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant,  O  Lord  our  God,  that  the  light  of  truth 
as  it  is  in  Christ  Jesus  may  flame  forth  more  in  love,  and  less  in  mere  think- 
ing. Teach  thy  people  to  be  like  unto  thee,  so  that  wherever  they  go  joy 
shall  go  with  them,  and  that  whenever  they  depart  they  shall  leave  a  blessing. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  that  all  thy  servants  of  every  name  may 
learn  the  good  that  is  in  each  other ;  and  that  all  thy  people,  divided  as  they 
must  be  in  a  thousand  things,  may  yet  be  united  in  higher  things,  aud  more 
gloriously  in  the  Spirit,  with  one  God,  one  faith,  and  one  baptism. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  fulfill  the  glorious  things  which  are  spoken  con- 
cerning thy  kingdom  in  the  latter  day.  Make  haste,  O  Lord,  we  pray  thee, 
and  inspire  thy  people  to  greater  fidelity,  aud  to  larger  enterprise,  that  they 
may  fulfill  thy  word  and  thy  will  in  all  the  earth.  We  pray  that  knowledge 
may  fly  to  and  fro ;  and  that  virtue  may  go  with  knowledge ;  and  that  man- 
ners may  be  ameUorated;  and  that  men,  mpre  and  more,  may  cease  to  live 
by  selfishness,  and  seek  to  live  by  kindness.  And  may  nations  become  bless- 
ings to  nations,  and  not  scourges. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  look  upon  the  condition  of  all  the  face  of  the 
earth.  Look  upon  those  who  are  in  darkness,  and'let  light  move  toward 
them.  We  pray  that  thou  wilt  look  upon  those  who  are  torpid  and  ungrow- 
ing,  and  inspire  them  with  a  new  summer.  Look  upon  the  nations  that  are 
adjoining  our  own.  We  pray  that  those  across  the  sea  who  are  in  poverty 
and  distress  by  reason  of  distractions  in  counsel,  may  be  objects  of  thy  com- 
passion. Grant  that  the  light  of  intelligence  may  rise  upon  them,  and  that 
at  last  it  may  lead  them  to  better  liberty,  and  to  wiser  counsels. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  look  upon  the  great  kingdom  from  which  we 
sprang,  from  which  our  fathers  came,  and  from  which  we  have  derived  so 
much  of  wi-dom  and  holy  inspiration.  We  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  that 
the  developments  there  in  favor  of  the  laboring  classes  may  give  them  som  - 
thing  whereon  to.stand.  Wilt  thou  speed  all  the  influences  which  are  work- 
ing for  the  good  of  the  common  people  in  that  land.  And  we  pray  that  in 
their  hour  of  distress  thou  wilt  be  gracious  to  thy  liand-maid  the  Qu(,'eu, 
and  all  her  household.     In  their  darkness  and  trouble  be  thou  with  them. 

And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  guide  the  counselors  of  the  people  every- 
where for  the  furtherance  of  thy  honor  and  glory,  and  of  the  welfare  of 


370  OIHEB  MEN'S  CONSCIENCES. 

mankind.  Overturn  and  overturn  until  cruelty  is  banished  from  the  earth, 
and  kindness  is  regnant  therein.  A.nd  to  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Spirit 
shall  be  praises  evermore.    Amen. 


PRAYER  AFTER  THE  SERMON. 

Our  Father,  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  us  that  wisdom  which 
comes  from  true  Christian  charity.  Thou  art  supremely  wise,  because 
thou  art  supreme  in  love.  Send  us  a  beam  of  divine  love,  that  out  of  it 
may  spring  that  unerring  wisdom  svhich  shall  make  us  wise  to  know  the 
things  that  make  for  peace,  the  things  that  make  us  more  brotherly,  and 
more  patient,  more  forbearing,  and  more  forgiving  toward  those  who 
transgress  against  us.  May  we  not  be  puffed  up  with  a  knowledge  of  outside 
things.  May  we  rather  have  a  knowledge  of  those  graces  which  make  us 
abundant  in  joy,  and  bring  forth  in  us  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit. 

Bless  us  while  we  sing  once  more  to  thy  praise;  go  home  with  us;  and 
bless  us  in  all  the  hours  of  the  day  with  our  families,  our  children  and  our 
friends ;  and  bring  us  at  last,  from  Sabbath  to  Sabbath,  from  Svmday  I  o  Sun- 
day, from  mountain-height  to  mountain-height, until  we  stand  in  Zion  and 
before  God.  And  to  thy  name  shall  be  the  praise,  Father,  Son  and  Spirit, 
Amen, 


XX. 

The  True  Law  of  the  Household. 


INVOCATION. 

Be  merciful  unto  us,  O  Lord,  according  to  the  multitude  of  thy  tender 
mercies.  Blot  out  our  trangressions  from  before  thee,  and  remember  them 
no  more.  Receive  us,  this  morning,  with  a  reconciled  countenance,  beam- 
ing life  and  light  and  joy  upon  us.  Awaken  in  us  all  thoughts  of  holi- 
ness, and  all  desires  of  purity,  and  all  heavenly  aspiration.  May  we  yearn 
toward  thee,  and  find  thee  answering,  and  drawing  us  up  unto  thyself. 
May  the  services  of  thy  houSe  be  profitable  to  us  for  instruction.  May  they 
inspire  in  us  a  true  devotion.  May  they  give  joy  and  peace.  And  may 
this  whole  day  be  blessed  of  God.  Through  Jesus  Christ  our  Redeemer  we 
ask  it,  to  whom  with  the  Father  and  the  Spirit,  shall  be  praises  evermore. 
Amen. 

20. 


THE  TEUE  LA¥  OE  TIE  HOUSEHOLD. 


"  Then  said  he  also  to  him  that  bade  him,  When  thou  makest  a  dinner  or 
a  supper,  call  not  thy  friends,  nor  thy  brethren,  neither  thy  kinsmen,  nor 
thy  rich  neighbors;  lest  they  also  bid  thee  again,  and  a  recompense  be  made 
thee.  But  when  thou  makest  a  feast,  call  the  poor,  the  maimed,  the  lame, 
the  blind  ;  and  thou  shalt  be  blessed ;  for  they  cannot  recompense  thoe;  for 
thou  Shalt  be  recompensed  at  the  resurrection  of  the  just."— Luke  XIV., 
13-14. 


These  "words  were  spoken  on  the  Sabbath-day.  The  Jews  were 
excessively  strict  in  one  respect  in  keeping  the  Sabbath — namely, 
that  of  preventing  labor  ;  but  it  was  entirely  in  accordance  with  the 
Jewish  idea  of  Sabbath-keeping  to  make  it  a  day  of  social  festivity. 
Men  were  allowed  to  have  their  friends  with  them ;  and  to  have  a 
feast  was  not  a  desecration  of  the  Sabbath. 

Our  Master  was  a  Jew ;  and  where  it  did  noi  contravene  the 
great  moral  virtues,  he  fulfilled  every  social  custom.  We  read,  here, 
that  he  went  into  the  house  of  one  of  the  chief  Pharisees  to  eat 
bread  on  the  Sabbath-day  ;  and  as  it  is  said  that  there  were  Jewish 
Doctors  and  Scribes  present,  it  is  evident  that  there  was  a  company 
gathered  there.  And  this  is  not  a  solitary  instance.  Those  who 
have  a  Christian  prejudice  against  parties  and  large  gatherings  of 
people  for  social  enjoyment,  find  no  countenance  for  their  prejudice 
either  in  the  Old  Testament  or  the  New.  There  never  Avas  a  people 
among  Avhom  there  Avere  so  many  feasts  and  festivals  as  among  the 
Jews ;  and  our  Master  himself,  instead  of  setting  his  face  against 
them,  conformed  to  the  customs  of  the  people.  Social  festivity,  with 
all  appropriate  hilarity,  has  received  the  sanction  of  Christ's  ex- 
ample ;  and  nowhere  has  it  been  rebuked  by  him. 

We  are  not  to  accept  these  words  which  the  Saviour  pronounced 
during,  or  immediately  consequent  upon,  this  dinner,  as  literal. 
Indeed,  you  may  say,  in  respect  to  Christ's  instruction  generally,  that 
it  reaches  toward  an  inward  principle  all  the  time,  and  that  Ave  shall 
in  no  way  miss  it  so  surely  as  by  attempting  to  take  it  in  its  most 
literal  and  formal  method.    If  you  were  to  accept  this  as  a  literal  in- 

SuNDAT  Morning,  Jan.  21, 1872.    Lesson :  Luke  XTV.  1-24.    Hymns  (Plymouth  Col- 
lection) Nos.  263, 185,  898. 


37-1  THE  TB UE  LA  ^Y  OF  TEE  EOUSEEOLD. 

junction,  it  would  cut  up  by  the  roots  all  friendships  among  rela- 
tions and  neighbors. 

"  When  thou  makest  a  dinner  or  a  supper,  call  not  thy  friends,  nor  tliy 
brethren,  neither  thy  kinsmen,  nor  thy  rich  neighbors ;  lest  they  also  bid 
thee  again,  and  a  recompense  be  made  thee." 

It  is  certainly  in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  I  believe  it  to  be  strictly  in  accordance  with  this  passage, 
under  certain  circumstances  and  in  due  measui'e,  to  invite  your 
friends.  But  it  is  the  characteristic  that  is  here  spoken  of.  If  this 
is  the  characteristic  feature  of  your  hospitality,  that  it  is  simply  a 
quid  pro  quo,  an  interchange,  you  giving  so  much,  and  receiving  so 
much  in  return — you  serving  yourself  while  you  are  serving  others 
— then  your  hospitality  becomes  a  selfishness.  It  is  a  mere  matter 
of  commerce.  But  Christ  teaches  that  every  man's  hospitality  must 
be  a  beneficence — as  it  cannot  be  where  he  receives,  or  expects  to 
receive,  a  fair  equivalent  for  it.  Said  he,  "  If  you  wish  to  exhibit  be- 
fore God  and  man  a  true  hospitality  that  carries  with  it  a  real 
benevolence,  exercise  it  toward  those  who  cannot  pay  you  back 
again.  Let  it  be  a  genuine  disinterested  kindness,  and  not  an 
exhibitory  kindness." 

You  will  find  the  same  mode  of  expression  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount: 

"  For  if  ye  love  them  wliich  love  you,  what  reward  have  ye? " 
What !  Am  I  to  understand,  then,  that  I  must  not  love  a  man 
who  loves  me  ?  No  ;  only  this  :  that  if  another  man  loves  you,  and 
you  love  him  in  return,  there  is  simply  an  exchange.  You  give  and 
take.  And  you  must  not  pride  yourselves  on  it.  Anybody  would 
do  that.  If  you  would  show  a  higher  trait,  then  you  must  learn  to 
love  men  who  do  not  love  you.  Anybody  loves  lovableness.  Only 
he  has  a  great  nature  who  knows  how  to  love  things  that  are  not 
lovable. 

*'  If  ye  salute  your  brethren  only,  what  do  ye  more  than  others?  Do  not 
even  the  publicans  so  ?" 

Not  that  Christ  forbids  us  to  salute  our  familiar  friends  and  ac- 
quaintances, but  that  we  are  not  to  think  that  in  doing  this  we  have 
fulfilled  the  whole  duty  of  courtesy.  There  is  a  courtesy  that 
requires  us  to  salute  others  besides  those  who  are  our  familiar 
friends.  And  I  do  not  at  all  understand  the  passage  which  I  have 
selected  for  my  text  to  say  that  we  must  limit  our  hospitality  and 
kindness  to  those  who  are  outside  of  our  circle  in  society — to  the  poor 
and  the  friendless ;  but  that  we  must  not  limit  them  to  those  who 
are  within  our  circle,  and  are  rich,  and  can  requite  us  in  the  same 
coin.  The  principle  advanced,  in  other  words,  is  that  of  a  true,  dis- 
interested hospitality.    It  is  a  caution  against  your  using  benev- 


TEE  TE  UE  LA  W  OF  TEE  EO  USEEOLI).  375 

olence  in  the  service  of  selfishness.  A  man  may  interchange  hospi- 
talities and  entertainments  with  friends  and  neighbors ;  bnt  he 
must  not  consider  these  hospitalities  and  entertainments  as  kind- 
nesses in  any  meritorious  sense.  It  is  in  his  own  interest  that  he  is 
acting  when  he  "exchanges  courtesies  with  those  who  belong  to  his 
set;  and  there  is  a  duty  of  kindness  yet  unperformed.  Though  a 
man  may  be  very  social,  and  may  do  much  to  promote  good-will  in 
his  neighborhood,  yet  if  he  stops  there  he  has  not  performed  the 
whole  of  his  duty  of  kindness. 

This  is  a  solemn  warning  against  selfishness  as  dispensed  under 
forms  of  benevolence.  There  is  a  danger  in  this  regard  which  per- 
vades life.  Men  employ  good  neighborhood  as  a  lure  and  a  guile. 
Those  who  hate  men,  treat  them  as  though  they  loved  them  because 
it  is  for  their  interest  to  do  it.  Men  compliment  and  flatter  their 
neighbors,  frequently,  not  at  all  as  a  token  of  sincerity,  but  against 
their  whole  judgment.  They  do  it  with  a  purpose.  They  use 
benevolence  or  kindness  in  some  of  its  forms  as  a  means  of  carrying 
out  selfishness.  Men  are  often  profuse  in  offers  of  service,  and  some- 
times also  in  performance  of  service,  doing  a  great  many  things  that 
are  really  kind  indeed,  but  with  an  object  in  view ;  and  that  ob- 
ject is  not  to  make  other  men  happy,  but  by  and  by  to  take  the  fruit 
of  this  service.  They  calculate,  as  much  as  men  do  in  commerce  and 
in  diplomacy,  as  if  the  things  were  reduced  to  a  mere  business  trans- 
action or  political  arrangement.  Men  are  genial  and  hospitable  as  a 
matter  of  business.  Indeed,  they  avowedly  maintain  hospitality  as 
one  of  the  portals  of  business.  Great  commercial  houses  have  their 
"entertaining  partner";  there  is  a  regular  bestowal  of  funds  for 
his  use,  and  it  is  expected  that  he  will  make  customers  comfortable 
and  happy.  I  do  not  say  that  these  things  are  wrong,  and  that  they 
must  not  be  indulged  in  :  but  they  are  not  to  be  set  down  as  evi- 
dences of  benevolence.  You  must  not  rank  them  with  acts  of  kind- 
ness.    They  are  simply  elements  of  self-service. 

Our  Master,  in  this  passage,  as  in  many  others,  significantly,  and 
with  singular  insight  into  the  tendencies  of  human  nature,  lays  this 
caution  and  warning  upon  such  a  subordination  of  our  nobler  feel- 
ings. He  bids  us  beware  of  loving  through  dissimulation  ;  of  kind- 
ness which  is  the  offspring  of  selfishness  ;  of  hospitality  which 
means  nothing  but  an  interchange  of  selfishness.  Do  not  corrupt 
the  fountains  of  the  best  feelings.  Do  not  pervert  the  noblest  and 
best  tendencies  by  causing  them  to  serve  conventional  selfishness, 
while  they  should  serve  true  disinterested  benevolence. 

I  propose  to  speak  particularly,  this  morning,  with  reference  to 
the  household,  calling  your  attention  to  the  duty  of  employing  it 


376  THE  TB UE  LA  W  OF  THE  HO USEHOLD. 

for  the  great  benevolent  ends  for  which  it  was  founded,  and  warning 
you  against  the  perversions  which  we  easily  fall  into  by  making  it 
an  almoner  of  selfishness. 

.  The  household  is  founded  upon  love  ;  and  with  all  its  imperfec- 
tions it  is  still  the  best  institution  which  society  has  ever  had,  or 
which  it  has  now.  Although  it  is  very  far  from  the  social  virtues  in 
their  highest  form  ;  yet,  nowhere  else  are  these  virtues  so  pure,  so 
symmetrical  and  so  full  of  beneficent  fruits,  as  in  the  household.  It 
is  not,  however,  so  shielded  but  that  it  is  pierced  by  temptations. 
Though  its  foundations  are  the  natural  affections  ;  though  it  is  very 
possible  for  father  and  mother  to  manifest  love  full  of  self-denial ; 
though  every  part  of  the  household,  acting  in  a  little  sphere,  is 
drawn  to  every  other  part  by  the  cords  of  true  affection,  which 
should  produce  a  disinterested  service  of  kindness  ;  nevertheless, 
the  true  love  of  the  household  and  its  disinterestedness  are  liable  to 
be  perverted  to  all  the  ends  of  selfishness. 

Whenever,  for  instance,  the  household  is  builded  and  maintained 
purely  for  the  purpose  of  securing  sensuous  comfort,  it  is  so 
perverted.  He  who  comes  back  from  weary  business,  feeling  that 
his  whole  family  must  serve  him,  has  a  mistaken  idea  of  his  duty  as 
,a  member  of  that  family.  He  is  tired.  No  one  therefore  must  lay 
upon  him  additional  burdens.  He  has  been  stirred  up  all  day ;  and 
it  is  not  for  any  one  now  to  annoy  him.  His  corner  of  comfort  he 
will  have  ;  and  wife  and  children  and  servants  must  get  out  of  his 
way,  or  come  near  only  for  the  sake  of  pouring  benefactions  into  his 
lap.  "  Have  I  not,"  he  says,  "  been  storm-beaten  all  day  in  the 
world  ?  and  what  is  the  use  of  a  home,  if  a  man  must  be  worried  and 
fretted  the  moment  he  gets  into  his  house  ?"  He  who  makes  the 
household  a  place  where  every  person  is  to  bow  down  to  him  and 
serve  his  selfishness,  has  perverted  the  fundamental  idea  of  that  in- 
stitution. We  are  bound  to  take  our  part,  and  bear  our  lot,  of  ser- 
vice there.  Nowhere  more  than  in  the  household  is  this  true  : 
"  He  whosoever  will  be  chief  among  you,  let  him  be  your  servant." 

They  who  think  of  the  household  merely  as  a  place  where  they 
can  eat  and  drink  and  sleep,  have  grossly  perverted  the  whole  divine 
conception  of  it.  I  fear  there  are  persons  Avho  regard  their  house  as 
a  ro5'al  restaurant.  They  fill  their  cellar,  they  store  their  larder  full, 
they  order  from  the  market  ample  supplies  ;  and  all  day  they  ha>  & 
the  joyful  thought  of  the  dinner  Avhich  awaits  them  when  they  re- 
turn. And  after  dinner  follow  abundant  potations.  And  then  comes 
the  long  sleep.  And  in  the  morning  they  awake  to  no  social  duties, 
but  only  to  bestir  themselves  for  the  work  of  the  day.  And  in  the 
midst  of  their  toil  they  are  buoyed  up  by  the  thought  of  the  dinner. 


THE  TE  UE  LA  W  OF  THE  HO  USE  HOLD  377 

of  the  snpper,  of  the  bed,  of  self-indnlgence.  And  they  have,  in  a 
magnified  form,  and  with  many  embellishments,  such  a  thought  of 
their  own  house  as  Ave  may  suppose  a  pig  has  of  his  pen.  It  is  a 
place  where  they  are  to  SAvill,  and  grunt,  and  sleep  ! 

To  a  man  who  has  no  conception  of  what  God  means  by  a  dis- 
interested social  love,  and  who  looks  upon  his  house  as  simply  the* 
place  where  he  is  to  be  made  happy  in  all  his  lower  appetites,  it  is 
not  the  gate  of  heaven.  Where  the  household  is  a  realm,  not  of 
serving  one  another  by  love,  but  of  seeking  to  have  yourself  served 
and  looked  up  to,  it  is  perverted. 

I  now  speak  of  that  which  the  Bible  cautions  us  against.  ^ 

•*  Fathers,  provoke  not  your  children  to  wrath." 

I  speak  of  the  despotism  of  parents.  We  hear  much  of  the  im- 
pertinence and  upstart  ways  of  Young  America  in  the  household. 
There  is  something  of  these  things.  There  are  dangers  of  either 
extreme.  But  there  is  also  in  the  household,  too  often,  a  sense  of 
men's  liberty  at  home.  They  feel  that  there  they  are  to  let  out  all 
their  selfishness,  and  temper,  and  caprice,  and  ill-will.  There  are 
those  who  walk  the  streets,  where  their  interests  require  them  to, 
courteous,  and  patient,  seldom  returning  railing  for  railing ;  there 
are  men  who  smell  like  a  May  morning  all  through  the  business 
hours  of  the  day.  They  save  their  ugliness  for  their  wife  and  chil- 
dren at  home.  When  they  come  back  at  night,  they  are  sharp,  quick, 
irritable. 

What  is  the  reason  that  those  who  know  you  best  can  pro- 
voke you  easiest  ?  Is  it  because  you  lie  open  to  those  whom  you 
are  living  with,  that  you  cannot  bear  from  them  half  as  much  as  you 
can  from  those  who  are  strangers  to  you  ?  Is  it  because  you  are 
aware  that  they  know  you  at  an  advantage  ?  However  that  may  be, 
it  will  be  found  that  Avhile  there  are  some  men  that  are  gruff  in  busi- 
ness who  are  very  tender  and  gentle  and  considerate  at  home,  there 
are  also  some  men  that  are  polite  and  courteous  out  of  doors  and 
among  their  neighbors,  their  vanity  holding  them  up  to  kindness, 
who,  when  they  return  home,  are  very  peevish  and  impatient,  and 
whose  children  must  not  have  any  freedom.  The  coming  of  the 
father  into  the  house  is  oftentimes  an  end  of  all  liberty  to  the  little 
ones.  The  moment  his  footstep  is  heard,  it  is,  "  Hush  !  your  father 
is  coming,  and  you  must  not  make  a  noise."  Or,  when  the  chil- 
dren are  playing  in  another  room,  the  servant  or  the  mother  is  sent 
to  quiet  them ;  and  it  is,  "  Children,  don't  you  know  that  your  father 
has  come  home !"  There  has  been  so  much  noise  where  he  has 
been  through  the  day,  that  when  he  comes  home,  instantly  every- 
thing in  the  house  must  walk  with  referenco  to  his  lordly  pleasure 
and  sovereign  joy.  ■' 


378  THE  TEUE  LAW  OF  THE  HOUSEHOLD, 

(I  beseech  of  you,  though,  do  not  throw  this  up  to  each  other 
when  you  go  home ;  or  if  you  do,  let  it  be  a  fair  division  !) 

HoAV  many  households  are  there  which  every  week,  and  perhaps 
every  day,  are  scenes  of  rankling,  and  irritation,  and  discomfort, 
and  disputation,  and  from  which  happiness  is  mostly  banished  I 
Now  and  then  there  is  a  radiant  hour ;  but  there  are  more  gloomy, 
east-wind  hours  than  there  are  of  the  other  sort.  "  This  house  is 
mine,"  says  the  man ;  "  and  if  one  cannot  do  what  he  has  a  mind  to 
at  home,  where  can  he  ?"  Nowhere.  The  wickedest  thing  that  a 
man  can  do,  is  to  conspire  to  do  what  he  has  a  mind  to  do,  unless  he 
has  a  mind  to  do  what  he  ought  to.  We  ought  not  to  live  to  please 
ourselves ; 

*'  For  none  of  us  liveth  to  himself." 

We  are  living  to  God ;  and  what  does  that  mean  except  living 
in  the  same  temper  in  which  God  lives  ?  He  that  makes  his  sun  to 
shine  on  the  evil  and  on  the  good,  and  sends  rain  on  the  just  and  on 
the  unjust  alike;  He  that  out  of  his  own  affluent  kindness  and 
good-natured  beneficence  pours  upon  his  creatures  everywhere  the 
bounties  of  the  seasons — He  it  is  that  we  are  to  live  to,  by  living  like 
him.  If  we  be  weary,  there  should  be  rest ;  if  we  be  weak,  there 
should  be  sustenance  \  and  if  we  be  crippled,  there  should  be  help. 
"We  have  a  right  to  take  much  from  the  family  ;•  but  Ave  must  also 
bring  much  to  the  family.  He  who  stands  in  the  household  like 
a  candle  in  a  golden  candle-stick,  as  though  it  were  instituted  for 
him  to  burn  in,  and  to  promote  his  own  comfort  in,  is  not  living 
toward  God,  but  contrariwise. 

Again,  where  a  household  is  organized  for  the  pleasure  of  the  few 
that  belong  to  it,  and  does  not  let  its  light  shine  out  to  others  who 
are  round  about  it,  it  is  not  fulfilling  its  true  mission.  I  mean  what 
we  call  "  secluded  families."  Far  be  it  from  me  to  say  that  every 
house  must  have  its  doors  wide  open  ;  or  that  every  family  should 
feel  itself  bound  to  "go  into  society,"  as  the  saying  is ;  or  that  there  is 
not  a  relative  seclusion  permissible  under  various  circumstances.  In 
all  these  matters  yoii  can  never  lay  down  a  rule.  But  you  can  estab- 
lish a  principle ;  and  the  principle  is  this,  that  no  man  has  a  right 
to  all  the  sweetness  which  is  generated  in  his  household.  If  there 
is  virtue,  if  there  is  peace,  if  there  is  contentment  there,  in  some 
way  or  other  the  community  have  a  right  to  the  influence  of  it. 

The  family  is  like  a  garden.  There  are  some  gardens  (not  many 
in  this  land,  but  in  England  I  saw  many,)  with  ten-feet  brick 
walls  built  up,  iron-spiked  or  glass-defended  on  the  top.  Within 
there  was  unknown  treasure.  I  know  not  what ;  for  I  could  not 
pierce  through  to  see.    There  were  vines  with  luscious  clusters. 


TEJE  TBVE  LAW  OF  THE  HOUSEHOLD.  379 

There  were  doubtless  early  apricots.  There  were  fruits  appropriate 
to  the  season.  There  was  every  color  of  flowers.  Everything  hung 
lush.  Everything  was  full  of  glowing  beauty.  But  these  things 
were  all  hidden.  There  was  not  a  lattice,  nor  even  a  peep-hole.  No 
child,  no  weary  workman,  nobody,  could  see  what  was  beyond  the 
wall.  The  man  within,  bottled  up,  and  lying  back,  had  it  all  for 
his  own  enjoyment.  And  he  said  to  himself,  "  This  is  my  garden. 
What  if  my  neighbors  cannot  see  into  it  ?  I  did  not  make  it  for  my 
neighbors ;  I  made  it  for  myself.  I  have  a  right  to  be  solitary.  There 
shall  be  some  place  in  this  world  where  only  I  can  go."  So  he  se- 
cludes all  that  wealth  of  view.  And  yet,  he  would  not  be  defrauded 
if  some  light  and  open  fence  permitted  every  poor  sewing-woman 
to  stop  and  breathe  the  perfume  of  the  flowers,  and  look  wearily  at 
the  things  within.  And  the. child  that  played  by  would  regale  itself. 
The  laborer  Avould  be  a  happier  man  for  looking  upon  the  graceful 
sweep  of  ornamental  trees,  the  cluster-laden  vines,  and  the  beds  of 
purfled  flowers.  N.obody  would  be  cheated  because  these  fed  the 
taste  and- enjoyment  of  unnumbered  ones  besides  the  owner. 

A  man's  family  is,  to  be  sure,  in  some  way  his  own  garden ;  he 
has  a  right  in  some  sense  to  its  exclusiveness ;  but  I  say  that  a 
father  and  a  mother  who  are  bringing  up  their  children  to  truth 
and  honor  and  virtue,  owe  a  debt  to  society.  They  must  in  some 
mode  interchange  relations  with  those  among  whom  they  live,  so 
that  the  whole  neighborhood  shall  have  the  benefit  of  their  house- 
hold thrift.  We  have  no  right  to  draw  ourselves  back  in  such  a  way 
that  the  children  of  the  neighborhood  shall  be  deprived  of  the  stim- 
ulus and  sympathy  which  they  naturally  would  have  from  every 
successful  and  harmonious  family. 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  selfishness  in  seclusion.  Many  men  flat- 
ter themselves  that  they  are  not  proud,  because,  as  they  say,  they 
would  not  live  in  such  a  point  of  observation  as  some  of  their  neigh- 
bors do.  They  flatter  themselves  that  they  are  not  vain,  but  mod- 
est and  retiring.  Well,  whether  you  are  proud  and  vain  or  not,  you 
are  selfish.  You  are  hiding  your  light  under  a  bushel.  God  has 
blessed  you,  and  made  you  rich,  and  given  you  power  to  do  good  to 
many  of  your  fellow  men  by  your  example.  And  one  example  is 
worth  a  thousand  precepts.  There  is  many  and  many  a  sweet  house- 
hold that  might  breathe  inspiration  of  a  better  mode  of  life  all 
through  the  neighborhood ;  but  it  is  shut  up  like  a  gardeft  with  a 
high  wall  around  it.  It  is  known  that  there  is  something  there,  but 
no  one  knows  what  it  is.  Such  a  seclusion  of  a  household  is  a  per- 
version of  it ;  and  we  have  no  right  to  make  our  households  selfish. 

I  also  advocate  the  right  and  duty  of  all  appropriate  expenditure 


380  THE  TRUE  LA  W  OF  THE  HOUSEHOLD. 

■upon  the  household.  There  are  a  great  many  who  amass  wealth, 
and  do  not  use  it.  I  have  known  communities  in  which  the  richest 
men  were  the  plainest  livers  ;  and  it  was  accounted  to  them  as  a  vir- 
tue. If  a  man  choose  to  live  plainly  in  order  that  he  may  use  his 
funds  in  the  service  of  the  public,  building  beneficent  institutions, 
diflFusing  knowledge,  and  strengthening  all  the  great  forces  of  virtue 
in  the  community,  I  say  that  he  is  doing  a  very  noble  thing.  If  a 
man  says,  "  I  will  live  in  a  humble  cottage  in  order  that  I  may  make 
it  possible  for  thousands  of  others  who  live  in  shanties  to  live  as  I 
do,"  he  is  benevolent.  But  where  a  man  accumulates  his  thousands 
and  hundreds  of  thousands  every  year,  and  then  lives  very  plainly 
at  home,  and  dresses  very  plainly,  and  does  not  diffuse  his  wealth 
among  others,  I  do  not  praise  him.  What  is  he  doing  with  his 
money  ?  Breeding  it.  Dollar  begets  dollar.  A  thousand  dollars 
has  another  thousand  for  its  child.  And  what  does  he  do  with 
his  increasing  means  ?  He  puts  them  to  breeding  again.  He 
lives  plain,  you  know.  He  sets  a  frugal  table.  Though  he  is  a 
rich  man,  he  wears  a  threadbare  coat :  he  is  not  proud.  He  wears 
a  rusty  old  hat:  he  is  not  proud.  He  goes  poorly  clad:  he  is 
not  proud.  No,  you  are  not  proud,  but  you  are  greedy  and  ava- 
ricious ;  and  you  live  meanly  in  order  that  you  may  make  money, 
more  than  you  can  spend,  and  more  than  you  need,  and  do  nothing 
with  it.  I  do  not  praise  that.  If  all  the  surplus  funds  which  you 
are  accumulating  were  being  expended  in  rearing  schools  in  the 
neighborhood,  and  in  giving  workmen  better  sewerage,  better  light, 
better  ventilation,  and  better  food,  that  would,  be  noble.  To  live 
close  that  others  may  live  better  is  praiseworthy;  but  for  a  man  of 
ample  means  to  live  meanly  in  order  that  he  may  have  more  useless 
money  than  he  already  has — that  I  do  not  praise. 

I  say  that  where  a  man  has  means,  not  only  has  he  a  right  to 
spend  it  on  his  own  house  and  grounds,  but  it  is  his  duty  to  do  it 
"Where  God  has  given  a  man  wealth,  and  where  he  has  more 
money  than  is  reqiiired  for  the  necessaries  of  life,  he  is  bound  to  live 
better  than  he  otherwise  could.  The  progress  of  civilization  is  from 
coarseness  toward  fineness ;  it  is  from  simplicity  toward  complexity; 
it  is  from  little  toward  much;  and  he  who  builds  a  home,  and  fur- 
nishes it  so  that  it  is  a  glowing  center  of  beauty,  and  then  adminis- 
ters his  family  so  that  it  shall  be  an  exemplar  of  virtue  and  culture 
in  the  cammunity,  spends  his  money,  not  on  himself  or  his  family, 
but  on  the  community.  For  his  family  becomes  an  institution  of 
education ;  its  example  will  tempt  thousands  and  thousands  of  men 
in  the  lower  walks  of  life  to  struggle  higher ;  and  it  will  be  a  con- 
tinual proof  and  exhibition  to  them  of  what  virtue  can  bring  to  a 


TEE  TE  UE  LA  W  OF  TEE  EO  USEEOLD  381 

man.  I  therefore  hold  that  Christian  benevolence  permits  a  man  to 
build  large  and  beautifully,  and  that  a  household  ought  to  be  a 
specimen  of  taste,  and  that  one  ought  to  make  it  the  product  of 
regal  wealth  where  he  can. 

But  all  luxury,  and  all  beauty,  and  all  bounty  must  have  the  ef- 
fect of  bringing  you  into  sympathy  with  your  fellow  men,  and  not 
of  repelling  you  from  them,  and  creating  a  separation  between  you 
and  them. 

And  here  is  a  very  searching  principle.  You  have  a  right  to 
spend  on  yourself  and  your  family  as  much  as  you  can  consistently 
with  a  growing  sympathy  Avith  your  fellows ;  but  the  moment  your 
expenditures  on  your  equipage,  or  on  your  domestic  economy,  set 
you  aside  from  men,  and  lift  you  out  of  sympathy  with  them,  you 
have  gone  too  far.  •  No  man  has  a  right  to  separate  himself  from  his 
fellowmen. 

"  Look  not  every  man  on  his  own  things,  but  every  man  also  on  the 
things  of  others." 

Do  not  study  your  own  happiness  alone,  but  see  to  it  that  with  your 
happiness  is  carried  up  the  happiness  of  those  around  about  you.  There 
is  a  subtle  element  at  work  all  the  time  in  this  regard.  God  will  not 
permit  a  man  to  go  up  a  great  Avay  unless  he  draws  up,  relatively, 
others  around  about  him.  And  when  men  attempt  to  live  far  above 
their  fellowmen,  everything  is  pulling  them  down — and  it  ought 
to.  No  man  has  a  right  to  build  himself  up  selfishly  for  himself. 
A  man  so  built  up  is  like  a  tower  standing  without  any  Cathedral 
under  it,  and  meaning  simply  a  toAver. 

I  believe,  therefore,  in  the  Christian  privilege  of  ample  living, 
and  of  a  wise,  discreet  use  of  one's  means,  for  raiment,  and  house- 
hold furniture,  and  equipage ;  but  all  these  things  imply  a  corres- 
ponding augmentation  of  genuine  helpfulness,  and  tenderness,  and 
kindness,  and  thoughtfulncss  of  others.  If,  when  you  have  built 
your  house,  you  are  further  off  than  ever  before  from  your  fellow 
men,  then  you  have  built  Avrong,  or  you  are  administering  wrong. 
If  when  you  were  living  in  a  poor  house,  every  one  seemed  like  a 
friend,  and  you  were  familiar  with  everybody;  and  if  now  that  you 
are  in  your  new  house,  your  acquaintances  drop  away  from  you,  and 
your  company,  as  it  is  said,  is  "  small  and  select,''  then  you  are 
growing  selfish;  you  are  perverting  your  household;  you  are  using 
those  elements  of  beauty  and  bounty  which  have  been  put  into  your 
hands  for  purposes,  not  of  benevolence,  but  of  selfishness 

No  man  can  make  a  general  rule  for  a  matter  of  this  kind ;  but 
if  you  find  that  your  indulgence  in  Avealth  is  making  you  a  more 
sympathetic,  a  better-hearted,  a  more  social  man,  do  not  be  afraid; 


382  TEE  TE  UJS  LA  W  OF  THE  HO  VSEHOLD. 

God  will  not  enter  into  judgment  ivith  you.  But  if  you  find  that 
your  indulgence  in  wealth  is  making  you  colder,  less  generous,  and 
less  thoughtful  for  others,  you  have  good  reason  to  be  afraid :  your 
wealth  will  be  your  mausoleum ;  you  will  be  buried  in  it ;  you  will 
be  a  dead  man  long  before  you  die. 

A  word  as  to  hospitality.  It  is  impossible  that  all  communities 
should  be  hospitable  according  to  the  same  method ;  for  hospitality 
goes  by  national  custom.  In  the  Orient,  the  custom  in  regard  to 
hospitality  used  to  require  that  no  person  should  go  past  your  door 
at  evening  without  being  called  in.  It  was  a  beautiful  custom  ;  and 
it  could  be  carried  out  in  the  times  of  the  patriarchs ;  but  it  would 
be  impossible  for  us  to  do  the  same  thing  now.  Our  houses  would 
be  thoroughfares  of  imposition  in  these  crowded  cities.  It  is  said 
that  we  entertain  angels  unawares ;  but  in  that  case  we  should  en- 
tertain burglars,  too.  This  promiscuousness  of  entertainment  would 
not  comport  with  the  organization  of  society  as  it  exists  in  the  day 
in  which  we  live.  Hospitality  must  be  naodified,  therefore,  by  tho 
manners  and  customs  of  the  age  in  which  it  is  administered.  But 
it  is  our  duty  in  a  general  way  to  employ  the  whole  force  of  our 
organized  households  for  the  exercise  of  kindness  toward  those  who 
need  kindness.  I  believe  it  is  a  man's  duty  to  entertain  people  who 
do  not  belong  to  his  family.  Of  course,  that  duty  may  be  limited 
by  the  question  of  health,  strength,  and  means.  A  thousand  cir- 
cumstances may  affect  it.  Nevertheless,  the  general  truth  remains, 
that  no  man  has  a  right  to  construct  a  house,  and  have  a  household, 
and  employ  them  simply  for  promoting  his  own  happiness.  Every 
man  owes  it  to  the  community  to  employ  his  house  as  a  kind  of 
church-hospital,  or  a  kind  of  bounty -house,  out  of  which  shall  issue 
such  tokens  of  good-will  and  of  kindness  as  shall  make  men  better 
and  wiser.  And  here,  I  think,  is  where  we  certainly  fail.  "We 
rarely  use  our  houses  as  much  as  Ave  can  for  the  real  promotion  of 
happiness  in  others. 

I  honor  those  gentlemen  in  New  York  who,  having  the  ability 
to  create  galleries  of  pictures,  are  accustomed,  one  or  two  days  in  the 
week,  to  throw  open  their  doors  to  any  who  will  apply  for  a  permit. 
That  is  as  it  should  be.  I  think  no  man  has  a  right  to  own  a  beau- 
tiful picture,  and  keep  it  for  his  OAvn  looking  at.  It  is  a  wicked 
thing — as  wicked  as  it  would  be  for  a  man,  if  he  had  a  book  of 
poems  which  was  calculated  to  thrill  every  heart,  and  if  that  were 
the  only  copy  in  the  world,  to  seclude  that  copy,  and  let  nobody 
read  it  but  himself. 

I  sometimes  see  a  picture  on  exhibition  in  New  York  which  is 
full  of  comfort  to  me.    It  fattens  my  eye.    It  cheers  my  soul.    I  go 


THE  TB  UE  LA  W  OF  TEE  HO  USE  HOLD,  883 

once,  twice,  thrice,  to  look  upon  it.  Then  it  is  appropriated,  and 
drawn  out  somewhere.  "  AVho  has  it  ?"  I  ask.  "  Mr.  Blank  has  it." 
*'  Cannot  I  see  it  ?"     "  No,  he  won't  let  anybody  see  a  picture." 

I  know  the  case  of  a  man  in  New  York  who  has  the  noblest 
collection  of  books,  probably,  in  the  United  States  of  America,  and 
you  can  get  into  a  penitentiary  easier  than  you  can  get  into  his 
library  to  see  them  !  They  are  almost  as  absolutely  hidden  as  they 
would  be  if  they  were  in  the  crypts  of  Egypt.  What  monstrous  sel- 
fishness is  this :  that  a  man  should  fill  his  house  with  things  that 
would  cheer  and  delight  men,  and  refuse  to  let  men  see  them !  I 
tell  you,  you  ought  to  feel  guilty  who  have  locked  up  in  portfolios 
pictures  which  might  please  and  benefit  others,  and  who  will  not 
allow  them  to  be  seen.  There  is  no  excuse  in  the  case  of  pictures ; 
for  the  eyes  do  not  waste  them  as  fingers  do  books.  A  million  men 
might  look  at  your  treasures,  and  they  would  be  none  the 
worse. 

If  you  are  filling  your  house  with  objects  which  have  the  power 
to  delight  and  profit,  that  house  and  its  contents  are  in  some  sense 
a  debt  which  you  owe  to  the  community ;  and  you  are  in  danger  of 
being  made  selfish  through  fine  art  and  taste.  Cursed  be  that  sel- 
fishness which  comes  through  the  medium  of  beauty  ! 

More  than  that,  I  think  we  owe  our  table,  to  a  certain  extent,  to 
persons  who  are  outside  of  our  own  families.  This,  I  say  again,  is 
not  to  be  rigidly  applied  under  all  circumstances.  It  is  not  meant 
that  every  person  who  is  scarcely  able  to  drag  one  foot  after  the 
other  shall  add  to  tasks  already  too  great  for  the  sake  of  entertain- 
ing others.  Make  all  rational  excuses,  and  set  apart  as  many  cases 
as  you  please,  and  yet  the  general  truth  is  this,  that  our  entertain- 
ments are  not  according  to  the  law  of  love. 

I  do  not  say  that  there  shall  not  be  any  great  fashionable  parties ; 
but  when  you  have  given  a  fashionable  part}^,  what  have  you  done  ? 
Have  you  not  done* precisely  that  which  our  Master  excoriated  in 
the  passage  which  I  have  selected  ?  Have  you  not  invited  the  man 
that  indorsed  for  you,  the  woman  that  stood  high  in  society,  the 
people  that  would  bring  in  a  glitter  of  reputation  to  you  ?  You 
have  in  your  house  a  large  crowd  of  people,  and  among  them  many 
notables ;  and  you  get  a  reporter  with  them ;  and  the  next  day  there 
appears  in  the  paper  a  whole  list  of  the  names  of  those  present ;  and 
the  occasion  is  represented  as  being  a  "  distinguished,"  a  "  magnifi- 
cent '*  reception ;  and  there  is  lavish  praise  of  your  lavish  expense. 
And  what  have  you  done  but  to  ofier  sacrifice  to  your  own  vanity  ? 

Do  you  like  these  people  ?  When  the  question  arises  as  to  who 
shall  be  invited,  Mr.  A.  is  mentioned.    "  Poh  !    Don't  invite  him." 


384  THE  TB  UE  LA  W  OF  TEE  HO  USEHOLD, 

"  But,  my  dear,  you  know  he  is  a  man  of  position  and  mfluence,  and 
■we  must  invite  liim."  *'  Well,  I  suppose  it  must  be  done."  "Then 
there  is  B."  "  Oh,  we  don't  want  him !"  "  But  don't  you  remember 
how  polite  he  has  been  to  us  ?  Of  course  he  must  be  invited."  And 
60  the  alphabet  is  gone  through  with  ;  and  this  one  and  that  one  are 
invited,  not  because  their  society  is  preferred,  but  as  a  sacrifice  to 
vanity  and  pride — from  any  other  motive  rather  than  benevolence. 

Why  do  you  laugh  when  I  speak  of  these  things  ?  Have  you 
known  anything  of  the  kind  ? 

Did  you  ever  read  this  chapter  in  the  Bible,  and  bring  it  home 
to  yourself  ?  Did  you  ever  think,  when  you  were  employing  your 
table  and  your  saloon  for  such  a  purpose,  that  you  were  going  in  the 
face  and  teeth  of  the  explicit  example  and  teaching  of  the  Lord  Jesus  ' 
Christ?  While  you  were  giving  magnificent  entertainments  to 
those  whom  you  cared  nothing  about,  and  also  while  you  were  enter- 
taining those  who  were  your  friends,  have  you  thought  that  you 
were  coming  short  of  the  fulfillment  of  the  injunction  contained  in 
our  text  ?  I  do  not  object  to  a  grand  fashionable  entertainment 
occasionally,  if  it  is  only  one  thrown  in  among  many  truly  hospita- 
ble entertainments. 

You  come  a  little  nearer  the  spirit  of  this  passage  when  you 
bring  in  all  your  friends — your  brothers  and  sisters,  and  cousins,  and 
relatives  generally — and  have  a  family  gathering.  This  is  very  well ; 
but  you  have  not  touched  benevolence  yet.  Do  you  ever,  from  one 
end  of  the  year  to  the  other,  entertain  any  besides  those  whom  you 
love,  and  those  whom  it  is  your  interest  to  entertain  ?  If  your  front 
door  opens,  and  satins  and  silks  come  rolling  in,  how  obsequious  and 
rejoiced  you  are  that  such  distinguished  honor  is  paid  to  you !  Or 
if  your  front  door  opens  at  some  other  time,  and  your  beloved  aunt 
and  cousins  enter,  your  heart  bounds  merrily.  They  come  to  see 
you,  and  you  go  to  see  them,  and  it  is  a  fair  exchange.  But  if,  on 
another  occasion  the  door  opens,  and  it  is  some  poor  person  that 
presents  himself,  you  say,  "  Go  down  to  the  basement  door ;  there 
are  cold  victuals  there  for  you."  Not  that  I  consider  that  a  man 
must  entertain  all  the  beggars  that  come  to  his  door.  One  can- 
not make  his  house  a  refuge  for  all  that  come  and  ply  him 
with  importunity.  Nevertheless,  the  thing  stands  apparent.  You 
have  no  right  to  sacrifice  your  hospitality  to  vanity  in  the  outermost 
circle  of  your  acquaintances,  or  even  to  confine  it  to  the  circle  of 
those  whom  you  love.  There  must  be  a  hospitality  which  takes  hold 
of  benevolence  ;  and  it  must  be  exercised  under  conditions  in  which 
you  give  and  do  not  receive.  There  must  be  something  in  it  of  tha 
nature  of  bearing  for  others.      It  must  cost  you  something  of 


TfflB?  TRUE  LAW  OF  TSE  HOUSEHOLD.  385 

thought,  and  labor,  and  fatigue,  to  give  benefaction  where  there  is 
no  expectation  of  getting  anything  back.  And  it  must  take  place 
under  circumstances  such  tliat  your  remuneration  shall  consist  in 
the  pleasure  of  doing  good  to  other  people. 

There  is  the  law,  the  ideal,  of  a  Christian  household.  Will  you 
fulfill  it  ?  Have  you  ever  done  by  your  family  and  household  all 
that  you  could  do  in  a  Christian  community  ?  I  am  not  your  judge. 
Judge  ye ! 

Tliere  is  a  great  difficulty  in  the  use  of  our  families  as  largely  as 
might  be,  arising  from  the  perverse  habits  of  society.  My  friends,  I 
do  not  think  we  live  too  well ;  but  I  think  we  live  a  great  deal  too 
burdensomely.  We  organize  too  complexly.  We  live  in  houses 
larger  than  we  need.  We  wear  ourselves  out  in  taking  care  of  un- 
necessary conveuiences.  We  insist  upon  dressing  too  well.  The 
labor  and  pains  of  supplying  and  keeping  in  order  our  wardrobe  for 
receiving  our  friends  are  too  great.  We  spread  our  table  too  var- 
iously and  too  expensively ;  so  that  when  we  have  entertained  hos- 
pitably our  friends  once  or  twice  in  a  year,  we  quit.  It  would  be 
better  if  we  Avere  simpler  in  our  mode  of  living.  And  it  is  not  neces- 
sarily the  case  that  in  living  simpler  we  shall  live  less  expensively ; 
for  simplicity  is  sometimes  ornate  and  expensive ;  but  I  think  that 
if  we  were  content  to  give  and  take  less,  we  should  meet  oftener,  and 
with  a  kindlier  feeling. 

Nothing  is  better  for  men  and  women  than  to  be  brought  into 
social  relations,  where  all  are  intent  on  making  each  other  happy, 
and  where  each  sees  the  pleasanter  side  of  the  other's  nature.  We 
have  shadows  enough,  tears  enough,  struggles  enough,  and  rivalries 
enough ;  and  it  is  a  good,  a  civilizing,  a  Christianizing  thing,  to 
bring  men  together  every  week  where  it  is  their  business  to  try  to 
make  each  other  happy.  And  if  the  processes  of  society  were  not  so 
complex  and  expensive,  we  could  do  it  far  oftener  than  we  do  now. 

A  man  in  Germany  was  invited  to  tea  by  a  literary  friend.  On 
reaching  the  house  and  going  into  the  supper-room,  he  found  on 
the  table  a  pitcher  of  water  and  a  loaf  of  bread,  and  nothing  more. 
They  sat  and  cut  the  loaf,  and  ate  it,  and  moistened  their  lips  with 
pure  water,  and  talked.  I,  of  course,  think  that  that  was  the  ex- 
treme of  barrennesss.  I  should  scarcely  give  such  an  entertainment, 
or  wish  to  go  to  many  of  that  kind.  But  while  that  was  extreme 
in  one  direction,  we  go  to  the  extreme  in  the  other  direction.  If  we 
would  spread  our  table  more  plainly,  if  our  whole  method  of  conduct- 
ing the  household  were  simpler  and  more  easy,  it  would  be  more 
convenient  and  pleasanter  for  us  to  extend  hospitality  to  each  other. 
The  Pharisaism  of  the  broom  and  dust-cloth  is  as  oppressive  as  the 


386  THE  TRUE  LA  ^Y  OF  TEE  HOUSE  BOLD. 

Pharisaism  of  pliylacteries.  We  are  swallowed  up  iu  formalities. 
Everything  must  be  ordered  just  so.  Our  houses  require  and  re- 
ceive so  much  work  and  service  to  make  them  shine,  that  when  Ave 
get  through  with  them  we  have  no  time  for  our  friends  and  neigh- 
bors. The  kitchen  requires  so  much,  and  the  dining-room  requir^-s 
so  much,  and  the  pantries  require  so  much,  and  the  other  parts  of 
the  house  require  so  much  attention,  that  we  are  constantly  slaving 
and  toiling.  Therefore  we  cannot  afford  to  entertain  our  friends 
often. 

If  we  are  going  to  have  the  best  organization  of  the  family,  and 
the  most  fragrant  intercourse  between  house  and  house,  we  must 
take  a  lower  key  in  our  civilization.  I  think  we  shall  come  to  it 
by  and  by.  I  think  we  are  in  the  midst  of  a  rank  and  abnormal 
growth  just  now;  but  we  are  gradually  coming  out  of  that,  I  think. 

And  what  I  have  just  been  saying  is  not  inconsistent  with  what 
I  said  in  regard  to  the  propriety  of  using  wealth  in  the  family. 
Making  provision  of  substance  is  a  very  different  thing  from  adopt- 
ing burdensome  methods  and  economies  of  life.  We  work  ourselves 
up  to  an  unnatural  and  unwholesome  state  by  a  thousand  attritions 
that  spring  from  the  complex  organizations  which  we  introduce  into 
our  modes  of  living.  And  we  cannot  have  freedom  and  joyous  in- 
tercourse until  we  are  less  slaves  to  the  opinions  of  others. 

I  honor  a  woman  who  comes  to  me,  when  I  call  at  her  house,  in 
just  tlie  dress  that  is  fitted  to  the  work  Avhich  she  is  doing.  If  I  a-n 
swallowed  up  in  an  abyss  of  plush  in  the  parlor  three-quarters  of 
an  hour  waiting  that  she  may  come  down  with  her  Sunday  suit  on, 
I  do  not  thank  her.  If,  on  the  contrary,  I  call  at  a  house,  and  the 
woman  is  kneading  bread,  and  she  comes  to  me  saying,  "  It  is  im- 
possible, sir,  but  that  I  must  see  you  as  I  am,"  that  is  just  the  way 
I  am  glad  to  see  her. 

If  you  are  sitting  at  your  table  with  your  children,  and  a  friend 
comes  in  late,  ask  him  to  sit  down  and  eat  such  food  as  there  is  on 
the  table ;  and  if  he  does  not  like  it,  let  him  go  somewhere  else.  If 
you  fail  in  the  requirements  of  hospitality  by  reason  of  sickness,  or 
from  any  other  unavoidable  cause,  an  apology  may  be  due ;  but 
ordinarily,  if  persons  come  into  your  house,  make  them  welcome, 
show  that  you  are  glad  to  see  them,  and  let  that  suffice. 

This  use  of  the  household  for  all  is  peculiarly  necessary,  not 
simply  as  a  part  of  the  moral  education  of  ourselves  and  of  our 
children,  but  also  for  political  and  social  reasons  here  in  America. 
We  are  a  vast  nation  of  equal  citizens.  iSTeverthcless,  there  is  no- 
where that  class-lines  are  more  sharply  drawn  than  in  this  country. 
There  is  the  class  that  exists  by  force  of  ideas  j  there  is  the  class  that 


TEE  TE  UE  LA  W  OF  THE  BO  USE  HOLD.  387 

exists  by  force  of  wealth;  there  is  the  class  that  exists  by  force  of 
fashion.  We  are  broken  up  into  sets  and  cliques ;  and  there  are  no 
walls  that  separate  one  class  from  another  more  effectually  than 
does  the  etiquette  of  society  in  our  large  communities. 

"We  need  to  have  society  move  on  its  own  particles  just  as  easily 
as  water  does.  There  cannot  be  wholesome  water  unless  a  circula- 
tion of  the  particles  is  going  on  incessantly.  There  cannot  be  a 
wholesome  atmosphere  where  there  is  not  a  moving  of  the  particles 
all  the  time  on  each  other.  And  there  can  be  no  health  in  society 
where  those  Avho  are  fit  for  it  cannot  plunge  below  it,  and  move  up 
into  it.  This  principle  of  movableness  by  which  one  may  take  the 
position  for  which  he  is  fitted  by  his  birth,  this  revolving,  cleansing, 
ventilating,  purifying  principle,  is  a  principle  of  Christian  democ- 
racy. It  is  a  principle  Avhich  more  than  any  other  will  promote  a 
true  feeling  of  brotherhood  among  men. 

You  are  not  better  than  your  neighbors  simply  because  you  are 
richer  than  they  are.  You  are  not  finer  than  they  are  simply  be- 
cause your  hand  is  softer  than  theirs.  Though  knowledge  generally 
goes  where  there  is  opportunity,  still  there  are  many  wise  men  who 
are  not  educated.  There  are  many  noble  men  and  women  in  very 
lowly  places.  And  when  you  exercise  a  true  hospitality,  when  you 
"  condescend  to  men  of  low  degree,"  you  rise  up  better  remunerated 
than  they  do.  There  is  something  in  the  higher  forms  of  society 
which  tends  to  conventionalism  and  artificiality ;  but  in  the  lower 
ranges  pf  society  there  is  more  naturalness.  Neither  the  high  nor 
the  low  are  perfect ;  neither  of  them  are  whole  men  and  women ; 
we  are  all  partial,  whether  we  be  at  the  top,  middle,  or  bottom  of 
society ;  and  something  Ave  certainly  need :  we  need  each  other. 
Those  who  are  high  need  to  feel  the  sympathy  of  those  who  are 
low ;  and  those  who  are  low  are  wonderfully  helped  and  cheered  in 
the  way  of  life  if  they  are  permitted  to  take  hold  of  the  hands  of 
those  who  are  high.  We  are  traveling  together.  Let  us  therefore 
help  one  another,  by  counsel,  by  personal  intercourse,  and  by  the 
use  of  the  household.  Let  us  help  each  other  according  to  the 
Christian  ideal,  that  "  we  are  members  one  of  another."  Let  that 
idea  pervade  our  hearts.  Let  it  enter  into  our  lives,  our  commerce, 
and  our  political  intercourse.  Let  it  be  the  law  of  our  households. 
Let  us  administer  our  lives  and  social  relations,  and  beneficences,  and 
hospitalities  so  that  all  Avho  are  around  about  us  shall  feel  that  out  of 
our  houses  and  out  of  our  hearts  comes  the  true  spirit  of  religion. 

"  Let  your  light  so  shine  before  men,  that  they  may  see  your  good  works, 
and  glorify  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven." 

Blessings  on  that  man's  house  and  establishment  which  is  down 


38 S  TEB  TBUE  LAW  OF  TEE  EOUBEEOLD. 

hill  from  every  poor  man's  heart,  and  towards  which  he  goes  as 
naturally  as  water  runs  down-hill ;  and  woe  to  that  man's  house  and 
prosperity  which  is  up-hill  from  poor  men's  hearts,  and  on  whose 
door-step  they  stand  and  chatter,  and  shiver,  and  go  away  feeling 
that  there  is  no  helper  and  no  friend  there.  God  bless  the  bounty 
of  wealth  i  God  bless  the  bounty  of  a  true  nature  of  refinement ; 
and  God  bless  a  hospitality  and  benevolence  that  does  not  seek  self 
under  the  garb  of  kindness,  but  that  seeks  real  kindness  by  kind 
ways. 


THE  TB  UE  LA  W  OF  THE  HO  USEHOLJ)  389 

PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

Thou  knowest  us,  our  heavenly  Father,  better  than  we  know  ourselves. 
Thine  undeceivable  eye  pierces  through  every  disguise.  Whatever  we  may 
hide  from  each  other,  we  hide  nothing  from  God.  Naked  and  open  are  we 
before  Him  with  whom  we  have  to  do.  While  it  fills  guilt  with  fear  and  pain 
thus  to  be  known,  it  brings  hope  to  ijeuiteuce.  For  if  thou,  knowing  all  that 
is,  and  all  that  has  been,  and  all  that  shall  be,  or  can  be  in  us,  dost  still 
reach  out  to  us  the  arms  of  love ;  if  thou  dost  speak  forgiveness  and  encour- 
agement to  us,  what  need  we  fear  ?  They  to  whom  we  go  among  men  may 
be  weary,  out  thou  art  never  weary.  Others  may  be  surprised  with  out- 
breaking wickednesses,  or  sins,  or  evils,  but  thou  knowestus  altogether ;  and 
whatever  is  possible  in  man  is  familiar  to  thee.  And  yet,  we  are  told  that 
we  have  a  merciful  High  Priest  that  can  be  touched  with  a  feeling  of  our  in- 
firmities, who  has  been  himself  tempted  in  all  points  as  we  are,  yet  without 
sin ;  and  we  are  called  to  come  boldly  to  the  throne  of  grace  to  obtain  mercy 
and  help  in  time  of  need. 

Be  gracious,  this  morning,  to  every  burdened  heart,  to  every  darkened 
conscience ;  to  every  one  upon  whom  rests  heavily  the  memory  of  past  sins ; 
to  every  one  who  stands  now  burdened  and  oppressed  with  transgression. 
Look  graciously  upon  those  who  are  environed  with  temptation.  May  they 
be  concious  that  they  that  are  for  them  are  stronger  than  any  strength  that 
can  resist  them. 

Grant,  we  pray  thee,  O  God,  that  there  may  be  breathed  into  every  one,  this 
morning,  the  consciousness  that  thou  art  the  Healer,  and  that  thy  hand  is 
stretched  out  not  to  punish  ua,  but  to  save  us ;  that  thou  wouldst  not  de- 
stroy, but  rather  reclaim,  and  reform,  and  beautify,  and  present  before  the 
throne  of  God,  without  blemish  or  spot,  those  who  have  been  justified  by 
thy  grace,  and  restored  by  thy  love.  And  may  there  be  a  heart  of  faith  in 
every  one.  May  all  those  who  are  conscious  of  their  defects,  and  their  deep 
sinfulness,  look  up  from  their  innumerable  stumblings  and  transgressions, 
and  find  the  way  of  peace  this  morning,  and  draw  near  therein  to  God,  and 
receive  strength  and  comfortable  words  for  days  to  come. 

Look,  O  Lord,  with  compassion  upon  us,  and  say  to  us  as  thou  didst  to 
her  of  old,  Go  and  sin  no  more.  And  then,  Lord,  thou  must  go  with  us. 
Then  thy  grace  must  abide  in  our  hearts.  For  we  shall  again  enact  the  same 
follies.  The  same  pride,  and  the  same  vanity,  and  the  same  selfishness, 
and  the  same  self-will,  and  the  same  self-indulgence,  and  the  same  mighty 
temptations,  are  outspread  all  around  about  us ;  but  if  thou  wilt  take  us  by 
the  hand,  we  shall  walk  and  not  fall.  If  thou  wilt  pervade  our  souls  by  thy 
illuminating  Spirit,  then  we  shall  not  be  the  children  of  darkness,  but  shall 
walk  continuously  in  the  light.  If  that  peace  which  passeth  all  understand- 
ing abound  in  us,  we  shall  .not  desire  forbidden  things,  Eor  turn  away 
from  the  straight  and  narrow  path.  Grant,  then,  thy  presence.  May  we 
walk  with  thee.    Come  thou  and  abide  with  us. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  multiply  the  joys  of  those  who  have  already 
found  joy  in  thy  presence.  Enrich  their  hearts  who  have  already  tasted  r  f 
thy  grace  and  thy  mercy.  Not  only  may  they  desire  to  rejoice  and  to  be 
happy  before  thee,  but  may  they  desire  that  their  joy  shall  be  as  an  offer- 
ing of  praise.  May  their  lives,  luminous  with  thy  grace,  shine  out  upon 
other  men,  and  become  the  guides  of  their  darkened  lives. 

We  pray,  not  only  that  in  all  things  we  may  add  grace  to  grace,  but 
that  each  grace  may  grow  finer  and  more  heavenly.  May  we  have  the  lore 
and  literature  of  this  spiritual  and  inward  life.  And  from  day  to  day  may 
we  find  ourselves  mounting  up  on  nobler  thoughts,  with  nobler  purposes, 


390      TEE  TB UE  LA  W  OF  TEE  EO USEEOLD. 

with  more  patience,  and  more  sweetness,  and  more  light,  and  more  peace. 
And  may  our  life  at  last  be  as  a  grand  chorus,  full  of  joy  and  gladness. 

And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  thy  blessing  to  rest  upon  our  house- 
holds, wherever  they  are.  Wilt  thou  abide  in  them.  May  thy  Spirit  dwell 
with  us,  and  purge  away  all  our  selfishness,  and  all  low  and  worldly  desires. 
May  we  know  how  to  exalt  our  lives  in  our  relations  one  to  another, 
and  bear  each  other  up,  and  carry  each  other's  burdens,  fulfilling  the  law  of 
love. 

We  pray,  O  Lord,  that  thou  wilt  pour  thy  Spirit  out  upon  all  the  young 
in  this  congregation.  We  thank  thee  that  there  are  so  many  who  have  been 
nurtured  in  the  Lord,  and  who  have  grown  up  into  man's  estate  with  all 
the  evidence  of  a  true  piety.  We  pray  that  multitudes  more,  following  on, 
may  find  their  footsteps  walking  ever  in  the  right  way.  May  they  find  the 
way  of  virtue  and  of  truth  to  be  a  pleasant  way.  And  though  thou  dost,  in 
thy  providence,  do  mysterious  things,  or  permit  them  to  be  done,  may  we 
have  confidence  that  if  we  bring  up  our  children  aright,  they  shall  not  de- 
part from  instruction  and  from  habit.  And  when  we  are  gone,  they  shall 
fill  our  places,  and  carry  forward  the  work  which  we  have  imperfectly 
begun. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  that  all  our  schools  may  come  up  in  remem- 
brance before  thee.  Wilt  thou  fill  the  hearts  of  those  that  teach  with  divine 
light  and  the  Divine  Spirit.  May  they  not  count  their  own  convenience  dear 
to  them.  May  they  not  do  their  duty,  but  rather  their  love.  May  they  re- 
joice to  labor  in  Christ's  name  for  the  welfare  of  those  who  are  less  favored 
than  they. 

And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  that  many,  by  their  fidelity,  and  by 
wise  instructions,  may  be  reclaimed  from  evil,  and  brought  into  the  Chris- 
tian life,  and  built  up  in  all  godliness. 

Bless,  we  pray  thee,  this  church,  and  all  its  officers.and  all  its  interests ; 
and  unite  it  more  and  more  in  every  good  word  and  work.  And  we  pray 
for  thy  blessing  to  rest  upon  the  churches  around  about  us.  We  rejoice  that 
thou  dost  not  look  with  sinister  eye  upon  those  who  differ  from  us.  Thou 
art  a  God  of  mercy,  aud  all  who  are  seeking  thee  are  of  thy  church  ;  and 
thine  arm  is  thrown  around  about  the  universal  band  of  those  who,  to-day, 
are  seeking,  though  it  may  be  in  twilight  or  in  darkness,  their  way  toward 
God.  Bless  them  abundantly.  And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  take  away  what 
error  remains.  Wilt  thou  straighten  the  crooked  paths.  Wilt  thou  more 
and  more  abase  the  things  that  are  high,  and  exalt  the  things  that  are  low. 
And  may  the  day  speedily  come  when  love  shall  triumph  over  hatred,  and 
over  selfishness,  and  over  all  evil  ways  whatsoever,  and  when  thy  kingdom 
shall  come  and  thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven. 

And  to  thy  name  shall  be  the  praise,  forever  and  forever.    Amen, 


XXT. 

Other  Men's  Failings. 


INVOCATION. 

Grant  unto  us,  our  Father,  the  light  and  the  joy  of  thy  Spirit.  Grant 
that  ^ve  may  draw  neai-  to  thee  with  hearts  open  and  honest  and  sincere. 
Wilt  thou  grant  that  light  to  interpret  thy  Word  by  which  it  was  inspired, 
and  bring  us  into  the  fullness  of  those  feelings  of  which  it  speaks,  that  we 
may  understand  with  the  inward  man.  May  all  the  services  of  the  Sab- 
bath, our  thanksgiving,  our  rejoicing,  our  fellowship  of  song,  the  reading 
of  thy  Word,  the  speaking  therefrom,  the  services  of  devotion  and  of  in- 
struction, be  divinely  assisted  and  guided,  to  the  honor  of  thy  name,  and  to 
the  profit  of  our  souls.    We  ask  it  for  Christ's  sake.    Amen. 

2L 


OTHER  MEN'S  FAILINGS. 


"  Bear  ye  one  another's  burdens,  and  so  fulfill  the  law  of  Christ."— Gal 


Many  persons  are  caught  with  the  most  superficial  contradiction. 
In  the  second  verse,  it  says,  "  Bear  ye  one  another's  burdens  " ;  and 
in  the  fifth  it  says,  "  Every  man  shall  bear  his  own  burden."  A& 
if  both  of  them  could  not  be  true  !  As  if  a  man  carrying  a  burden 
for  which  he  is  especially  responsible,  might  not  have  it  lightened 
someAvhat  by  one  who  walked  by  his  side  and  helped  him  !  As  if  a 
little  child  carrying  a  heavily  laden  basket — which  it  was  his  task  and 
business  to  carry,  and  which  he  had  to  take  care  of — might  not  be 
helped  by  another  child  walking  by  his  side,  and  taking  hold  of  the 
handle ;  so  that  it  might  be  said  to  one  of  them,  "  This  is  your 
burden,  and  you  must  see  to  it ;"  and  to  the  other,  "  Help  him  Avith 
his  burden."  And  yet,  persons  suppose,  because  in  the  second  verse 
it  is  said,  "Bear  ye  one  another's  burdens,"  and  in  the  fifth,  "EA^ery 
man  shall  bear  his  otrn  burden,"  that  there  is  some  contradiction 
here.  No,  there  is  cooperation.  The  responsibility  is  on  each  man 
to  carry  himself  and  his  trials  and  troubles  through  life.  All  the 
more,  therefore,  as  far  as  in  us  lies,  Ave  should  help  each  otlier.  For,  to 
bear  one  another's  burdens  does  not  mean  to  take  them  off  from  one 
another's  shoulders,  but  to  help  each  other  to  carry  them.  AYc  are 
to  assist  others  in  bearing  their  oAvn  burdens.  We  are  to  contribute 
to  their  strength  and  to  their  courage.  We  are  to  render  them  as 
much  help  as,  by  sympathy  or  otherAvise,  Ave  may. 

It  is  not,  then,  simply  bearing  the  burdens  of  others  as  things 
which  cannot  be  aided,  but  assisting  them  to  bear  their  burdens, 
that  is  unquestionably  meant  in  this  passage.  The  context  shoAvs 
that. 

"  Brethren,  if  a  man  be  overtaken  in  a  fault " 

That  is,  if  a  man  stumble  and  fall.  Such  is  the  force  of  the 
original.    Fault  may  mean  merely  some  minor  form  of  Avrong,  as 

Sunday  Morning,  Jan.  28, 1872.   Lesson:  Rom.  XIV.  1-13.    Hymns  (Plymouth  Co'- 
leuiiou)  Nos.  213, 531, 580.  ^  j  ■ 


394  OTUEE  MEN'S  FAILINGS. 

the  torm  has  come  to  be  understood  in  our  time  ;  or  it  may  mean 

something-  more  serious.    It  runs  through  the  whole  range  of 

stumbling. 

"  Brethren,  if  a  man  be  overtaken  in  a  fault,  ye  which  are  spiritual, 
restore  such  a  one  [lift  him  up  on  his  feet,  pick  him  up  again],  in  the  spirit 
of  meekness;  considering  thyself,  lest  thou  also  be  tempted." 

The  apostle  is  never  satisfied  tliat  we  should  simply  have  Chris- 
tian graces.  He  wants  those  graces  polished.  It  was  not  enough 
for  him  to  say  that  we  are  to  restore  a  man.  We  are  to  do  it 
beautifully.  We  are  to  do  it  in  such  a  spirit  of  meekness  that  it 
shall  be  like  conferring  a  favor.  We  are  not  to  stand  and  laugh  and 
sneer  at,  and  ridicule  a  man  who  has  fallen,  and  then  with  an  air  of 
proud  superiority  say,  "  Well,  I  will  help  you."  If  a  man  falls,  we 
are  to  draw  near  to  him  just  as  if  Ave  had  ourselves  fallen  ;  that  is, 
with  such  a  consciousness  of  our  fallibility,  with  such  gentleness  and 
sweetness,  that  our  sympathy  and  love  will  be  balm  and  healing  to 
him. 

"  Restore  such  a  one  in  the  spirit  of  meekness  ;  considering  thyself,  lest 
thou  also  be  tempted." 

It  is  in  this  connection  that  the  command  is  given, 

*'  Bear  ye  one  another's  burdens." 

While  this  does  not  exclude  the  bearing  of  burdens  of  a  physical 
character — the  ordinary  troubles  and  trials  of  life — it  does  not  stop 
at  these.  Whatever  thing  tends  to  bend  a  man,  to  warp  him  in  his 
habit  of  thought,  in  the  conduct  of  his  moral  feelings,  in  the 
administration  of  his  affections,  in  the  whole  range  of  his  social 
life ;  whatever  may  be  a  man's  imperfection,  or  misdemeanor,  or  fault, 
or  failing,  the  command  is — '^Ilelp  him!"  Do^not  sting_him  by 
criticism.  Do  not  punish  him  in  any  way.  Do  not  neglect,  anTI  do 
not  merely  blame  him.  Consider  that  we  are  helpers  one  of  another, 
and  that  there  is  no  place  where  a  man  needs  help  so  much  as  inside, 
and  in  the  conduct  of  that  fiery  team  Avhich  every  one  of  us  is 
attempting  to  drive.  Horses  of  the  sun  are  our  passions,  and  each 
man  is  a  charioteer,  and  we  need  assistance.  And  we  are  to  help 
each  other  in  the  greatest  work  which  can  be  conceived  of — the  at- 
tempt of  a  man  to  carry  himself  with  all  his  frowning  passions,  and 
with  all  the  strength  of  the  feelings  which  are  in  him,  safely, 
through  life,  so  as  to  grow  better  and  better. 

"  Bear  ye  one  another's  burdens,  and  [to  make  it  stronger  yet]  so  fulfill 
the  law  of  Christ." 

These  things  are  to  be  done  because  they  are  commanded.  And 
the  law  of  Christ  is  none  other  than  the  law  of  love.  But, 
it  seems  to  me,  no  man  can  fulfill  it  without  help.     There  ai'(j 


OTHER  MEN'S  FAILINGS.  395 

ethical  difficulties  which  play  between  one  judgment  and  another, 
as  to  how  to  administer  severity  with  kindness,  and  pain  with 
restoration,  and  how  to  administer  blame  and  rebuke  and  re- 
proof, which  also  are  commanded,  so  that  on  the  whole  the  effect 
shall  be  medicative,  and  so  that  the  act  shall  be  full  of  gentleness, 
and  sweetness,  and  love.  That,  no  man  can  do  by  rule.  You  can- 
not lay  down  rules  as  to  how  it  shall  be  done.  No  man  can  do  it 
except  by  the  intuitions  of  love.  He  who  has  a  heart  as  full  of  love 
as  a  mother's,  will  do  as  a  mother  does  who  knows  how,  with  infinite 
variations,  according  to  time  and  circumstances,  to  adapt  herself 
to  her  children.  It  is  the  great  tide  of  love  by  Avliich  she  ministers 
to  them,  though  she  checks  them,  and  punishes  them,  and  rej)roves 
them,  and  rebukes  them,  and  puts  them  back  there,  and  draws  them 
forward  here.  Nobody  could  tell  her  how  to  do  that  most  difficult, 
that  most  complex,  that  finest  and  most  subtle  work.  There  is 
nothing  on  earth  like  a  mother's  guidance  of  her  children  to  man- 
hood or  womanhood.  No  frescoes  that  artist  hand  ever  put  on  tem- 
ple, no  statue  that  ever  was  carved,  no  picture  that  ever  was  painted, 
no  cathedral  that  ever  was  built,  implies  such  deep  and  everlasting 
skill,  springing  from  qualities  which  are  to  be  everlasting,  as  the 
building  up  of  a  man  or  a  woman,  out  of  the  elements  which  go  to 
make  the  brightest  character.  The  building  of  it  is  transcendent, 
measured  by  whatever  scale  or  scheme  you  please.  And  she  does  it, 
not  by  rule,  nor  wholly  by  principle,  though  she  may  have  some 
rules  and  some  principles.  It  is  the  simple  intuitions  of  love  that 
tell  her  how  to  do  it. 

The  apostle  says,  "  If  a  man  has  faults,  restore  him  in  the  spirit 
of  meekness."  And  who  has  not  faults  ?  "Who  is  not  slipping  and 
stumbling  all  the  time  ?  There  is  snow  all  the  year,  and  men  are 
sliding  continually.  There  are  stumbling-blocks  on  every  road,  and 
men  are  pitched  headlong  over  them  perpetually.  Pitfalls  and  snares 
are  on  every  side  of  us ;  and  every  man  is  going  Avrong  all  the  while. 
The  Word  of  God  says  : 

"  Seest  thou  a  man  wise  In  his  own  conceit  [who  thinks  he  does  not  go 
wrong]  ?  there  is  more  hope  of  a  fool  than  of  Mm." 

And  yet,  we  are  all  the  time  going  Avrong,  and  are  alongside  of 
men  who  are  doing  the  same  thing.  Saith  the  Spirit  of  all  love  and 
wisdom,  "If  any  man  is  going  wrong,  help  him  ;  if  he  stumble,  lift 
him  up ;  if  he  fiill,  restore  him ;  and  do  it  in  the  spirit  of  meekness, 
remembering  that  you  are  yourselves  like  him  liable  to  the  same  mis- 
fortune, and  in  need  of  the  same  treatment.  Bear  one  another's 
burdens;  help  one  another  in  your  faihngs  and  wrong  tendencies: 
and  do  it  in  the  spirit  of  tlie  great  law  of  love,  so  fulfilling  the  law 
of  Christ." 


396  O  THEE  MEN  S  FAILINGS. 

Clirist-like  piety,  then,  may  be  known  not  only  by  its  purity 
and  by  its  abliorrence  of  evil  in  one's  self,  but  by  its  gentleness  and 
lielpfulness  toward  those  who  are  evil ;  and  that,  not  toward  those 
alone  who  are  professionally  evil — the  great  sinner,  the  outcast,  the 
criminal,  and  the  vicious.  In  our  dealings  with  each  other,  if  we 
be  true  Christians  after  the  pattern  of  Christ,  the  temper  of  that 
love  which  the  Divine  Spirit  quickens  and  developes  in  us  is  to  be 
medicating ;  it  is  to  be  nourishing ;  it  is  to  be  healing.  There  is  a 
duty  often,  and  a  necessity,  of  emphasizing  the  guilt  of  sin.  We 
must  not  suppose  that  because  Christian  love  helps,  and  because 
true  spiritual  conditions  help,  they  never  analyze,  expose,  blame, 
or  inflict  suffering.  It  is  impossible  to  teach  right  and  wrong  to  the 
budding  nature  or  a  child  in  the  same  way  that  you  can  produce  a 
moral  shock  over  against  wrong  deeds  and  feelings  m  an  adult ;  and 
pain  is  often  the  best  mode  of  doing  it.  It  may  seem  a  rude  way, 
but  it  is  an  indispensable  way,  thus  far,  in  human  life.  Pain  and 
penalty  are  the  natural  results  of  wrong,  as,  conversely,  pleasure  and 
reward  are  of  right.  Parents  must  rebuke  in  their  children  tenden- 
cies to  impurity,  to  selfishness,  to  temper,  to  dishonesty,  to  falsehood, 
and  to  a  hundred  shades  of  these  things. 

Here  is  a  child  that  has  not  been  brought  up  with  moral  dis- 
crimination. He  has  been  neglected  in  this  regard.  Though  he  may 
intellectually  and  sesthetically  have  had  every  advantage,  and  may 
have  been  profited;  yet  the  child  who  has  not  had  that  training,  one 
of  whose  factors  was  pain-producing,  has  not  been  rightly  educated 
by  his  parents.  Conscience  has  not  been  developed  and  exercised  in 
him.  He  has  not  been  taught  to  discern  between  good  and  evil, 
right  and  wrong.  It  is  indispensable  that  guardians  and  teachers, 
in  bringing  up  their  wards  and  pupils,  should  make  discriminations 
between  right  and  wrong,  and  should,  by  some  inward  experience 
of  pain  or  rebuke  so  educate  their  moral  sense  that  they  should 
themselves,  by  and  by,  be  able  to  interpret  these  qualities. 

Men  in  representative  capacities  are  also  obliged  to  authenticate 
right,  and  defend  it  against  Avrong,  by  painful  means. 

It  is  true,  then,  that  the  higher  the  scale  in  which  we  act,  the  more 
clumsy  are  the  instruments  which  we  employ.  Our  competency  to 
administer  love  is  more  signal,  but  still  imperfect,  where  we  stand 
in  a  small  circle — in  the  family.  We  diminish  power  in  this 
direction  when  we  undertake  to  carry  out  this  law  and  spirit  into 
the  whole  neighborhood.  And  when  we  attempt  to  administer 
general  laws  and  institutions  in  the  whole  community,  it  must  be 
said  that  the  system  which  we  are  obliged  to  pursue  is  a  bungling 
system  of  expedients,  rather  than  a  wise  system.     The  best  laws  are 


OTHER  MEN'S  FAILINGS.  397 

coarse,  and  the  best  administrations  are  notoriously  imperfect,  and 
the  attempt  to  administer  the  whole  community  by  the  law  of  love 
exposes  the  inadequacy  and  miserable  inefficiency  of  men's  wisdom 
and  moral  sense  more  than  anything  else. 

Therefore  it  is  that  we  feel  that  laws  are  but  feelings  after  right, 
and  that  courts  are  but  the  rudest  forms  of  administration,  and  that 
penalties  inflicted  by  society  are  mostly  empirical,  and  to  a  very 
large  extent  involve  an  element  of  injustice.  Of  ten  men  standing 
together  in  Sing  Sing  to-day,  and  working  there  for  the  same  crime, 
there  are  not  two  that  have  had  the  same  justice  meted  out  to  them. 
There  was  no  consideration  taken  of  their  nature,  to  begin  with. 
There  was  no  consideration  takefo  of  the  circumstances  of  their 
education,  nor  of  the  temptations  under  which  they  fell.  There 
was  no  consideration  taken  of  the  scope  of  the  mischief  which  they 
had  caused.  For  stealing,  one  man  was  sent  there  for  a  year ;  an- 
other man  who  was  less  culpable  was  sent  for  five  years ;  and 
another  man  who  was  still  less  culpable,  judging  as  God  judges,  was 
sent  for  ten  years.  So  society  mismeasures.  There  is  no  equality, 
no  symmetry,  no  justice  of  measuring  between  right  and  wrong. 
Nevertheless  what  we  are  doing  is  the  best  we  can  do. 

I  would  not  let  a  man  put  his  harrow  into  my  flower-beds,  I 
trow.  Nothing  but  the  fingers  will  do  when  you  are  working  with 
delicate  flowers  to  weed  them  out.  But  if  I  have  twenty  acres  of 
land  devoted  to  a  corn  crop,  it  cannot  all  be  weeded  with  the 
fingers ;  and  I  have  to  take  a  hoe  or  a  plow.  It  is  rude,  and  coarse, 
and  rough  ;  but  the  magnitude  of  the  task  obliges  me  to  take  second 
or  third-rate  instruments. 

Men  take  the  justice  of  society  and  transfer  it  to  God ;  they  take 
the  idea  of  an  earthly  magistrate  and  apply  that  to  the  character 
of  God  ;  they  take  the  blunders  and  imperfections  of  human  society, 
its  basilar  qualities,  and  from  them  they  infer  the  divine  disposition  ; 
whereas,  it  should  be  the  other  way.  We  should  infer  the  nature 
of  God,  and  of  his  moral  government,  from  the  best  things  in  men? 
acting  on  the  best  side,  and  under  the  best  circumstances.  The 
household,  not  law,  reveals  God  in  Christ.  It  is  the  domestic  side 
of  God  that  Christ  has  revealed  to  us ;  and  that  is  effulgent,  trans- 
cendently  bright. 

I  was  saying  that  we  must  sympathize  with  the  wrong  doings 
of  men  to  this  extent :  that  we  should  be  tender  and  helpful  of 
them  notwithstanding  their  faults.  This  does  not  imply,  as  I  have 
said,  that  we  should  never  inflict  pain,  or  administer  rebuke,  in  the 
development  of  moral  culture.  These  are  necessities.  Oftentimes 
kindness  requires  that  we  should  employ  them.     But  there  is  adutv 


398  OTHER  MEN'S  FAILINGS. 

that,  while  we  give  pain,  it  should  'be  given  in  the  spirit  of  impart- 
ing pleasure.  AVhcn  Ave  rebuke,  we  are  to  do  it,  not  in  the  spirit 
of  anger,  but  in  the  spirit  of  pity  and  of  sorrow.  We  are  to  help 
men  by  giving  them  paiii,'  as  Avell  as  by  not  giving  them  pain ;  but 
when  Ave  do  give  pain,  it  is  to  be  given  with  a  feeling  ofjvvellr 
Avishing.  • 

A  profound  sense  of  the  weakness  and  sinfulness  of  man  is 
indispensable  to  any  intelligent  charity.  The  older  I  groAV,  the  more 
I  am  satisfied  of  the  sinfulness  of  man;  and  the  older  I  grow  the 
more  I  am  satisfied  that  the  certainty  of  universal  sinfulness  leads  to 
charity.  If  I  felt  that  men  Avere  all  capable  of  the  highest  develop- 
^  ment,  that  Avould  be  the  ideal  wirth  which  I  should  measure  them; 
if  I  felt  that  it  Avas  possible  for  the  multitude  of  men  to  carry  them- 
selves above  a  certain  average,  I  should  condemn  them  according  to 
this  conviction ;  but  believing  men  to  be  universally  weak,  and 
dropping  out  of  Aveakness  into  infirmity  easily,  and  easily  stepping 
from  infirmity  into  sin,  this  sense  of  the  Aveakness  and  liability  of 
men  is  the  gauge  by  Avhich  I  measure  them.  I  do  not  hold  them  to 
a  stringent,  unyielding  rule  of  conduct.  I  do  not  expect  that  they 
Avill  not  fall.  I  knoAV  that  they  Avill  fall.  I  know  that  they  Avill  sin 
through  their  understanding  and  their  moral  sentiments,  and  yet 
more  through  their  passions  and  appetites.  I  knoAv  that  they  will 
sin  even  in  circumstances  Avhich  are  favorable  for  virtue.  But  that 
they  Avill  sin  under  the  stress  of  temptation,  I  certainly  know. 

There  is  no  man  that  lives  Avho  does  not  sin.  There  is  no  man 
that  lives  Avho  cannot  be  made  to  sin.  All  men  could  not  be  made 
to  sin  in  the  same  way.  Some  men  cannot  be  made  to  sin  by  meat 
and  drink.  Others  can.  And  of  those  who  cannot  be  made  to  sin 
by  meat,  and  drink,  some  can  be  made  to  sin  by  temptations  of 
money.  There  is  many  and  many  a  man  Avhose  morals  are  pure 
enough,  but  Avhose  avarice  is  as  intense  as  a  furnace  of  fire ;  and  he 
might  be  made  to  sin  there.  He  might  not  at  one,  or  two,  or  three 
degrees,  but  he  might  at  tAventy  or  thirty  degrees.  Some  are  fusible 
at  a  low  temperature,  like  lead,  and  others  require  the  compound 
bloAv-pipe  to  fuse  them ;  but  there  is  no  man  Avho  cannot  be  fused  at 
some  point.  Some  may  be  Avarped  by  their  sympathies  and  affections 
who  could  not  be  by  their  pride.  But  though  one  might  not  be 
toppled  over  by  pride,  he  might  by  vanity.  And  though  one  might 
not  be  made  to  yield  by  vanity,  he  might  be  led  into  compliance  by 
benevolence  and  gentleness  and  good-Avill.  Some  men  can  be  over- 
come in  one  way,  and  some  in  another.  SoracAvhere  or  other  there 
is  a  joint  in  the  harness  through  Avhich  the  arroAV  could  go.  The 
implication  is  that  every  man  is  temptable,  and  that  no  man,  being 
tempted,  has  poAver  to  cure  himsel£ 


OTHEB  MEN'S  FAILINGS.  309 

Will  not  tlie  grace  of  God  save  a  man  ?  Yes,  the  grace  of  God 
may ;  but  the  man's  own  efforts  will  not  save  him.  He  may  be  saved 
by  social  institutions,  or  he  may  be  saved  by  the  direct  inshining 
of  the  Divine  Spirit.  He  may  be  saved  in  various  ways.  The  ques- 
tion is  as  to  the  resisting  power  which  inheres  in  human  nature 
itself;  and  I  say  that  there  is  no  man,  however  well  he  may  be  built, 
however  many  virtues  he  may  possess,  however  numerous  his  good 
tendencies  may  be,  Avho  is  exempt  from  sins.  There  is  no  man  who 
is  not  liable,  not  only  to  faults  and  foibles,  but  to  vices  and  crimes. 
Not  every  man  is  given  to  every  sort  of  wrong.  Some  men  are  built 
on  the  pattern  of  a  hare,  and  you  could  not  make  them  act  like  a 
lion  ;  but  they  act  as  hares  do.  Some  men  sin  as  foxes  do.  Some 
men  sin  as  serpents  do.  Some  men  sin  as  buffaloes,  and  some  as 
elephants  do.  Some  men  are  rude  and  aggressive,  and  some  are 
slight  and  insinuating.  Each  man  Avill  sin  according  to  his  own 
nature  and  disposition.  Somewhere  sin  can  find  entrance  into 
every  man.  No  man  can  stand  and  look  at  his  fellow  men  and  say, 
*'  Bah  !  the  riff-raff,  miserable  creatures,  have  no  sense  of  character  or 
elevation.  There  is  no  need  of  their  being  as  they  are.  It  is  all 
wishy-washy  sentimentalism  to  talk  of  men's  being  naturally  liable 
to  sin.  They  ought  not  to  sin."  The  man  who  talks  so  is  himself 
a  recreant  sinner.  In  the  very  act  of  condemning  men,  without 
pity  or  sympathy,  he  is  a  transgressor  of  the  law  of  God,  and  he' 
Btands  right  in  the  range  of  those  terrific  balls  which  Christ  shot 
from  his  artillery,  Avhen  he  said,  "  Woe,  unto  you,  scribes  and  Phari- 
Bees !"  It  was  the  selfishness  of  the  moral  sentiments  in  the  Phari- 
sees that  brought  down  such  terrible  denunciation  upon  them. 

The  curative  sympathy  of  men  does  not  lead  them  to  look  lightly 
upon  transgression.  At  any  rate,  it  need  not.  If  it  does,  it  is  be- 
cause it  is  unwisely  administered.  Sympathy  with  men  on  the  part 
of  Christian  people,  founded  on  the  certainty  of  universal  sinfulness, 
universal  weakness  and  universal  temptableness,  does  not  lead  them 
more  easily  into  wrong ;  but  it  is  essentially  curative. 

In  our  great  conflict,  now  happily  passed,  the  soldier,  standing  in 
his  ranks,  and  dealing  death  or  wounds,  was  a  witness  for  loyalty. 
Many  and  many  an  adversary  was  destroyed.  Many  and  many  a 
one  was  maimed  and  taken  prisoner,  and  brought  into  the  hospitals 
within  our  lines.  And  then  came  the  soft  hand  of  the  sympathetic 
nurse.  For  it  was  not  then  thought  unwomanly  for  women  to  leave 
their  households  to  attend  to  public  affairs.  It  Avas  not  then  thought 
that  Avoman  Avas  not  fit  to  organize,  when  she  organized  this  Avhole 
nation  into  comprehensive  systems,  and  administered  them  as  no 
men  ever  administered. 


400  OTHER  MEN'S  FAILI.NGS. 

When  the  rebel  conies  into  the  hospital,  and  finds  himself  nour- 
ished, and  with  growing  health  and  strength  dealt  gently  and  kind- 
ly Avith,  little  by  little  his  heart  is  turned  back  again ;  so  that  when, 
looking  through  the  opening  of  his  tent,  or  through  the  hospital 
door,  he  sees  the  old  flag,  memories  steal  over  him,  and  tears  run 
down  on  his  pillow;  and  with  the  shout  that  he  hears  raised  to  that 
old  flag,  he  feebly  shouts.  Once  more  he  is  restored  to  his  right 
mind,  and  he  loves  the  flag  again.  And  tell  me,  does  not  the 
kindness  of  the  nurse  work  cure  of  his  disloyalty  as  much,  and 
more  than  the  sword  did  ?  Is  not  her  kindness  as  much  a  witness 
of  his  wrong-doing  as  the  avenging  phalanx  ? 

The  boy  that  has  done  wrong  is  punished  all  the  way  home  for 
fear  of  punishment ;  and  his  father,  whom  he  dreads,  catches  him  at 
some  unlucky  turn,  and,  by  a  sound  whipping  he  is  put  on  his  feet 
again !  But  he  is  not  half  as  much  restored  (if  I  recollect  right !)  as 
when,  going  home  from  the  transgression,  he  meets  the  eye  of 
his  mother,  who  fondly  puts  her  arms  about  him,  and  simply  looks 
into  his  eye  sorrow,  and  reproach,  of  the  gentlest  and  SAveetest  kind ; 
and  he,  unable  to  lift  up  his  little  shamed  head,  nestles  under  her  arm, 
and  cries,  and  says  he  is  sorry ;  and  she  kisses  him,  and  says,  "  I  be- 
lieve you  are,  my  dear  child,"  and  lets  him  go.  Is  not  he  whipped 
to  a  better  purpose  by  her  than  he  was  by  his  father  ? 

Not  that  the  rod  is  not  sometimes  and  somewhere  useful ;  but, 
after  all,  there  is  much  more  efficacy  in  sympathy  wisely  administered. 
Men  do  not  so  much  need  to  have  a  knowledge  of  their  sinfulness 
burnt  into  them.  Ordinarily,  men  know  all  that  they  need  to  know ; 
and  they  carry  a  suppressed  conscience  with  them.  There  is  an  in- 
ward feeling  which  they  do  not  dare  to  let  out.  But  if  you  meet 
such  men  with  blame,  they  stoutly  defend  themselves.  If  you  pun- 
ish them,  they  bear  up  against  punishment. 

It  used  to  be  a  matter  of  pride  in  school  for  us  bo^s  to  take  pun- 
ishment bravely.  When  I  had  thrown  paper-balls,  and  missed  the 
master  (to  my  great  regret),  and  I  was  called  out,  and,  holding  out 
my  hand,  I  took  the  strokes  of  the  rattan,  twenty,  twenty-five, 
thirty  of  them,  and  took  them  without  flinching,  like  an  Indian,  did 
I  not  know  that  all  the  boys  behind  me  were  watching,  and  saying, 
"  Bravo  !  there's  a  hero  for  you !"  and  did  I  not  go  back  to  my  seat 
triumphing  in  my  little  iniquity  ?  But  if  I  perform  the  same  mis- 
demeanor in  school,  and  my  master  detains  me,  and  says  a  few 
words  to  me,  telling  me  how  hard  it  is  for  him,  in  his  feeble  and 
nervous  state  of  health,  to  carry  on  the  school ;  that  it  is  a  great 
burden  to  him ;  and  that  if  his  scholars  would  help  him,  he  could 
help  them  better;  and  if  he  kneels  down  with  me  (oh  woe!)  and 


OTREB  MEN'S  FAILINGS.  401 

prays  with  me  (I  could  beg  him  on  my  knees,  "  Do  whip  me,  but  do 
not  pray "),  and  his  manner  is  all  tenderness,  I  feel,  "  Catch  me 
throwing  anything  at  him  again,  or  annoying  him  in  any  way  I" 
And  it  is  kindness  that  has  wrought  the  change  in  me. 

Men  have  an  impression  which  is  wrong  both  ways.  They  think 
that  severity  is  inconsistent  with  benevolence.  Oftentimes  it  is  a 
necessity  of  benevolence  to  be  severe.  And  they  are  just  as  much 
mistaken  when  they  suppose,  on  the  other  hand,  that  kindness 
shown,  even  that  which  has  not  in  it  an  element  of  conviction  or  con- 
demnation, is  taking  part  with  transgression.  I  aver  that  the  way 
"to  deal  with  a  man  is  to  arraign  him  in  the  court  of  his  own  con- 
science, and  convict  him  of  wrong,  and  set  in  motion  in  him  that 
enginery  by  which  the  wrong  shall  be  ejected  and  the  right  reinsta- 
ted ;  and  I  say  that  kindness  is  that  which  puts  the  heart  in  a  better 
state  for  repentance  and  right-doing  than  any  other  instrumentality. 

These  things  Avere  found  out  in  the  household  long  ago.  In  a 
sort  of  way  they  are  found  out  in  theology;  yet  theology  is  but  a 
clumsy  reproduction  of  them.  You  never  can  reproduce  that  which 
is  simply  an  emotion  in  the  form  of  an  idea.  You  cannot  change  a 
feeling  into  a  definite  statement.  I  should  like  to  have  you  put 
music  into  words.  Did  you  ever  hear  a  man  who  could  not  sing 
undertake  to  describe  a  tune,  and  show  how  it  runs  along  ?  Can 
you  give  a  description  of  a  piece  of  music  which  shall  enable  a  per- 
son to  understand  it  who  has  never  heard  it  ?  Can  you  describe,  so 
that  it  shall  be  understood  in  every  line  and  lineament,  by  one  who 
has  never  experienced  it,  the  gush  of  a  heroic  love  which  so  beats  in 
a  man's  blood  that  it  transforms  every  organ,  clearing  his  eye,  and 
making  it  a  crystalline  lens,  bringing  down  the  heavenly  state,  and  giv- 
ing a  glory  to  all  things  which  before  were  homely  ?  Can  any  lan- 
guage define  it,  philosophize  it,  systematize  it,  and  make  it  appear 
like  itself?  All  that  you  can  do  by  way  of  conveying  ideas  of  such 
intangible  elements  as  those  of  the  feelings  or  emotions  of  the  soul, 
is  to  have  mnemotechnic  Avords — words  which,  if  you  have  had  the 
feelings,  suggest  them,  and  reproduce  them  in  yourself. 

But  no  words  can  define,  and  no  philosophy  can  explain,  the  po- 
tency and  power  of  benevolence,  to  one  who  has  had  no  experience 
of  the  thing  itself.  We  know  it  better  in  the  lower  experiences  of 
the  household  than  ordinarily  it  is  known  in  the  church,  or  than 
ever  it  was  known  in  society  at  large. 

The  applications  of  this  truth,  which  I  have  sufficiently  illustra- 
ted, are  many.     A  few  of  them  the  remaining  time  Avill  allow  us  to 
make. 
.   First,  no  man  has  a  right  to  be  absorbed  in  his  own  piety.    No 


402  OTHEB  MEN'S  FAILINGS. 

man  has  a  right  to  confine  himself  to  the-  building  np  of  his  own 
character.  No  man  has  a  right  to  feel  that  if  he  keeps  himself  un- 
s]3otted  from  the  world,  he  has  done  his  whole  duty.  A  great  many 
men  can  do  this,  comparatively  speaking.  A  man  can  avoid  temp- 
tations to  dishonesty  if  he  withdraws  himself  from  the  business  of 
life,  and  lives  a  recluse.  A  man  can  cease  to  have  envy,  and  jeal- 
ousy, and  rivalry  if  he  lives  solitarily.  But  no  man  has  a  right  to 
become  selfish  for  the  sake  of  building  up  an  ideal  character  in  him 
self.  We  were  born  to  live  together;  and  no  man  has  a  right  to 
shirk  the  responsibilities  of  social  life.  In  social  life,  no  man  has  a 
right  to  disconnect  himself  from  his  fellow  men,  and  seek  his  own 
good  by  separations  from  society  in  general.  That  man  Avhose  only 
concern  is  to  make  his  thoughts  just,  and  his  conscience  true,  and 
his  moral  sentiments  accurate,  and  his  affections  right,  and  to  hold 
them  in  an  inward  sympathy,  so  that  he  shall  live  harmoniously 
with  himself,  and  in  communion  with  God,  is  using  piety  to  make 
himself  exquisitely  selfish.  A  man  is  bound  to  seek  to  build  up 
others  as  well  as  himself. 

We  are  emigrants  crossing  over  the  plain  together.  God  has 
mixed  things  in  this  world.  We  are  trying  to  so  select  and  bring 
things  together  that  they  shall  be  just  alike;  but  God  keeps  them 
mixed.  All  classes  of  people  are  thrown  together.  You  cannot  sift 
out  the  poor  from  the  community.  The  rich  may  buy  land,  and  lay 
out  streets,  and  build  houses,  and  keep  away  from  people  tliat  are 
low,  and  not  allow  emigrants  to  come  near  them — in  a  little  corner 
they  can  do  it ;  but  in  some  way  or  other  an  equivalent  will  come 
up.  The  poor  are  indispensable  to  the  rich.  The  roots  of  the  pros- 
perity of  the  rich  grow  among  common  folks.  The  life  of  a  tree  is 
dependent  upon  its  roots.  If  the  bottom  sufiers,  the  top  will 
suffer  also.  And  so  men  are  dependent  upon  each  other.  You  can 
not  get  out  of  your  social  connections  in  society.  We  are  mixed  up, 
good  and  bad,  honest  and  dishonest,  just  and  unjust,  mean  and  hon- 
orable. Men  plead  that,  in  all  the  innumerable  ways  in  which 
they  are  brought  in  contact  Avith  their  fellow  men,  they  are  tired  of 
men.  Well,  I  am  tired  of  men,  too ;  and  Avhat  do  I  do  ?  Just  what 
I  do  when  I  am  tired  of  any  thing  else.  I  go  to  sleej),  and  become 
rested  and  refreshed,  and  then  get  up  and  go  at  it  again. 

Men  think  of  a  society  where  all  breaths  shall  b3  breaths  of  love, 
and  truth,  and  honor,  and  excellence.  Yea,  verily,  let  us  all  aspire 
after  this.  But  at  present  you  cannot  have  it.  You  are  in  a  world 
where  God  says  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  strong  to  bear  with  the 
weak.  It  is  the  duty  of  light  to  take  care  of  darkness.  It  is  the 
duty  of  health  to  take  care  of  sickness.    It  is  the  duty  of  honesty 


OTHER  MEN'S  FAILINGS.  403 

to  take  care  of  dishonesty.  It  is  the  duty  of  purity  to  take  care  of 
impurity.  It  is  the  duty  of  stability  to  look  after  the  unstable  and 
the  wavering.  It  is  the  duty  of  every  higher  impulse  that  Christ 
inspires  in  the  soul  of  man  to  train  itself  as  a  Physician  mid  a  Sa- 
viour toward  those  Avho  are  deficient.  That  is  the  law  of  develop- 
ment according  to  the  kingdom  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  No  man. 
has  a  right,  therefore,  to  put  himself  in  a  crystal  cave,  and  have  his 
virtues  sing  to  him  like  so  many  canary  birds.  You  must  plunge 
into  the  battle,  and  take  yoiir  part  and  lot  with  men,  and  help  them, 
and  that  just  where  they  most  need  help,  and  oftentimes  in  the 
tilings  Avhich  are  least  congenial  to  your  feelings. 

The  spirit  of  this  passage  forbids,  also,  that  we  should  rejoice 
in  iniquity ;  that  we  should  gloat  over  evil.  I  never  saw  anybody 
Bit,  in  a  summer's  day,  and  lay  bare  his  leg,  and  take  a  paper  of  pins, 
and  commence  sticking  them  in  for  his  amusement.  I  have  seen  men 
have  their  hair  brushed  because  they  enjoyed  it.  Generally  speak- 
ing, when  I  see  men  taking  to  anything  naturally,  I  say  "  It 
is  because  they  like  it."  When  I  see  a- man  read  every  murder  in  the 
ncAVspaper — every  single  case  of  crim.  con.  in  the  courts ;  when 
I  see  a  man  eatiflg  carrion  every  day,  morning,  noon,  and  night, 
hunting  for  it,  I  say  to  myself,  "  He  likes  it."  I  make  up  my  mind 
that  he  does  rejoice  in  iniquity.  I  am  convinced  that  there  is  some- 
thing in  this  garbage  which  meets  a  want  in  his  nature.  As  for  my- 
self, I  should  as  soon  set  up  my  dwelling  in  the  common  sewer  of 
New  York,  as  to  dabble  in  tlie  stench  pools  of  the  criminal  columns 
of  our  daily  papers,  which  pour  out  the  hell  at  the  bottom  of  society 
every  day — mud,  mud,  mud — feted,  foul,  stinking  mud.  We  spread 
these  papers  before  us  at  our  breakfast  tables,  and  pick  out  a  bit  of 
carrion  here,  and  a  bit  of  carrion  there,  going  through  all  the 
details  of  crimes,  and  vices,  and  misdemeanors  of  life  which  have 
been  dragged  to  the  surface.  I  tell  you,  a  pure  nature  does 
not  rejoice  in  iniquity.  There  is  in  iniquity  something  so 
solemn,  or  so  repulsive,  or  both,  that  the  pure  and  upright  nature 
cannot  bear  it.  If  it  be  needful,  we  may  go  to  it  as  a  surgeon 
goes  to  the  ulcer,  not  because  he  likes  ulcers,  but  because  ho 
has  to  cure  them  ;  but  if  we  cannot  do  this,  if  we  are  not  called  to 
medicate  it,  then  we  ought  to  thank  God  that  we  are  not  obliged  to 
meddle  with  it.  And  I  mark  it  as  one  of  the  things  to  be  marveled 
at,  that  there  are  in  society  so  many  men  Avho  are  good  in  other  re- 
spects, that  there  are  so  many  pure  persons,  that  there  are  so  many 
womanly  natures,  that  there  are  so  many  Avhose  virtues  in  many  par- 
ticulars are  I  know  transcendently  beyond  mine,  who  yet  seem  to 
have  a  positive  longing  for  morbid  news,  of  the  morbid  passions, 


404  OTHEB  MHJPS  FAILINGS. 

of  the  worst  parts  of  men,  under  the  worst  temptations.  I  do  not 
understand,  I  cannot  understand,  why  it  is  vulgar  to  meddle  with 
excrement  in  the  house,  and  not  vulgar  to  meddle  with  the  excre- 
ment of  human  society. '  There  is  a  touch  of  the  animal  in  us  yet. 
The  beast  is  big  in  mankind  to  this  day. 

This  bearing  one  another's  burdens,  in  the  sense  in  which  I  have 
interpreted  it — in  the  sense,  namely,  of  not  taking  pleasure  in  the 
faults  and  failings  of  men  ;  of  not  criticising  them ;  of  not  rejoicing 
in  them  nor  in  their  outcomes,  but  of  tenderly  and  meekly  helping 
the  subjects  of  these  to  overcome  them — this  is  pre-eminently  a  duty 
Avhose  sphere  is  the  household. 

Children  love  to  tease  children  ;  and  they  very  soon  find  out 
where  they  can  tease  them.  One  child  is  very  sensitive  to  praise  ; 
and  the  others  very  soon  know  how  to  nip  him  ;  and  they  will  tor- 
ment him  through  his  love  of  praise.  Another  child  is  proud  ;  and 
his  companions  know  just  how  to  employ  his  pride  to  make  him 
wince.  Another  child  is  selfish  ;  and  those  with  whom  he  associates 
are  all  the  time  getting  hold  of  his  things,  and  pulling  them  gfway 
from  him,  and  annoying  him.  Another  child  is  timid,  and  his  fear 
is  the  instrument  by  which  he  is  teased  and  annoyed.  As  fear  is  the 
most  terrible  feeling  which  one  can  experience,  so  playing  upon  fear 
in  a  child  is  the  cruelest  savageism.  In  the  cases  of  how  many  chil- 
dren in  whom  fear  is  a  predominant  faculty,  is  it  not  succored, 
is  their  burden  not  borne  nor  made  lighter,  but  is  this  element  in 
them  employed  as  a  rod  with  which  to  plague  and  annoy  them !  The 
whole  system  of  teasing  in  the  household  is  contrary  to  the  spirit  of 
this  maxim. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  teasing — one  saccharine,  and  the  other 
acetous.  There  are  men  who  tease  you ;  and  on  the  whole  you  rather 
wish  they  would.  They  know  how  to  do  it  dexterously.  It  is  done  by 
a  finer  intelligence,  by  a  shrewder  mirth ;  and  there  is  an  element  of 
mercy  in  it.  It  is  done  in  the  interest  of  kindness.  So  that,  although 
a  man  may  start  for  the  moment,  yet  the  reflection  brings  something 
sweet  and  pleasant.  It  is  not  unfrequently  the  case  that  a  man  may 
by  teasing  convey  instruction,  and  even  offer  criticism,  in  a  manner 
that  shall  be  most  acceptable.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  acetous 
teasing  is  done  in  the  spirit  of  hurting,  and  it  does  hurt ;  and  the 
person  teased  does  not  enjoy  it.  This  kind  of  teasing  is  wicked  in 
the  family.  The  parent  is  bound,  not  simply  to  blame  the  child,  but 
to  help  it  bear  its  burdens ;  to  lend  it  his  strength  where  it  is 
weakest  and  the  most  liable  to  break  down. 

I  think  that  among  ordinarily  organized  children,  nineteen  out 
of  twenty  of  those  that  learn  to  lie  (and  I  think  that  nineteen  out 


OIHEB  MEN'S  FAILINGS.  405 

of  every  twenty  children  do  learn  to  lie),  are  taught  to  do  it  by  the 
indiscretion  of  the  parent.  The  child  does  wrong.  He  is  yery  sensi- 
tive both  to  blame  and  to  punishment.  He  is  convicted  of  having 
done  wrong.  What  did  he  do  ?  He  wandered  into  the  pantry,  and 
there  he  saw,  and  smelled,  and  felt,  and  tasted,  the  new-made 
doughnuts.  This  was  contrary  to  the  rule.  It  was  a  thing  which 
is  forbidden  in  every  well  regulated  ftimily  !  The  child  is  suspected, 
from  various  symptoms.  It  Avould  be  better  if  now  the  child  were 
remembered  to  be  a  little  child,  and  very  sensitive  to  shame  and  to 
pain.  If  the  parent  does  remember  it,  and  sees  that  the  child  is  not 
intimidated  into  lying,  the  child  may  be  saved ;  but  it  is,  "  George, 
have  you  been  into  that  pantry  ?"  "  No,  ma'am,"  says  George. 
What  is  that  lie  ?  It  is  the  involuntry  shield  which  the  child  throws 
up  to  protect  itself  from  the  parental  stroke.  The  parent  teaches 
the  child  to  lie  in  self-defense.  The  parent  should  stand  between  the 
child  and  temptation,  and  take  heed  not  to  lead  it  into  temptation 
by  untoward  discipline  and  temper  and  haste.  It  is  the  indiscretion 
of  the  parent,  oftentimes,  that  breaks  down  the  truthfulness  that 
is  beginning  to  be  established  in  the  little  child.  We  are  to  bear 
each  other's  burdens  ;  and  little  children  have  burdens  that  ought 
to  be  sought  for  and  borne  by  those  who  have  outgrown  their  child- 
hood— though  I  am  sorry  for  those  who  have  outgrown  their  sym- 
pathy with  childhood.  They  have  outgrown  themselves,  and  the 
best  part  of  tliemselves. 

The  same  law  holds  between  school  companions.  They  have  no 
right  to  subject  each  other  to  ridicule  and  unnecessary  shame  or  pain 
by  indifference,  by  exposure,  or  by  penalties  affixed  to  that  side  where 
they  are  Aveakest. 

It  is  especially  wicked  to  take  the  strong  point  in  ourselves,  and 
with  it  cut  against  the  weak  point  in  our  companions.  Here  is  a  man 
who  is  knit  together  on  purpose  to  succeed.  He  is  organized  like  a 
machine  for  weaving,  which  will  certainly  carry  the  thread  and  pro- 
duce the  fabric  of  success.  He  has  in  his  make-up  something  of  the 
sterling  qualities  which  have  been  handed  down  from  his  grand- 
father, from  his  father,  from  his  ancestors  on  his  father's  and 
mother's  sides,  for  generations  back.  He  is  like  a  bag  in  a  mill 
which  hangs  below,  and  receives  all  that  is  put  into  the  hopper  and 
ground  above.  The  tendencies  and  trainings  of  unknown  genera- 
tions behind  come  down  into  him.  He  finds  himself  intelligent 
and  active.  It  is  easy  for  him  to  do  things.  And  he  is  tired  to  death 
of  that  shiftless  brother  of  his,  of  whom  he  says,  "  If  I  have  helped 
him  once,  I  have  helped  him  twenty  times.  If  I  stand  him  up  he 
is  like  an  empty  bag,  and  down  he  goes ;  and  if  I  fill  him  up,  lie  is 


406  OTHER  MEN'S  FAILINGS. 

as  limpsy  as  before,  and'  down  he  goes  again."  Now,  the  truth  is, 
you  inherited  the  excellences  which  make  you  so  much  superior  to 
him.  They  were  never  bestowed  on  him  either  by  inheritance  or 
training.  He  was  made  as  he  is.  He  could  no  more  do  as  you  do 
unaided,  than  a  mowing-machine  could  cut  grass  without  being 
drawn.  And  you  who  do  well  by  an  imperious  necessity,  unjustly 
stand  over  against  him  who  never  does  well,  to  criticise,  and  annoy, 
and  blame  him,  and  finally  to  cast  him  off  and  get  rid  of  him,  say- 
ing, "  I  cannot  stand  it  any  longer." 

Every  man  who  is  strong  ought  to  have  buttoned  to  him  one  or 
two  of  these  shiftless  men,  that  he,  having  organized  power,  may 
take  care  of  them,  they  having  it  not. 

Men  say,  "  Oh,  that  we  could  have  a  society  from  which  was^ 
purged  all  those  hindrances  which  we  meet  on  every  hand  !"  Ah 
yes  ;  you  would  like  a  society  that  should  be  like  a  chariot,  and  that 
should  bear  you  through  life  without  any  drawback  to  your  ease  and 
happiness.  But  this  world  is  too  poor  for  that.  It  is  a  world 
in  which  it  is  our  duty  to  help  each  other.  We  are  mixed  up,  the 
strong  and  the  weak,  the  wise  and  the  foolish,  the  good  and  the  bad ; 
and  we  must  exchange  kindness,  and  take  hold  of  hands,  and  march 
together  in  the  right  way. 

Here  is  a  person  who  is  by  nature  orderly.  Every  drawer  is  fore- 
ordained for  some  special  use.  This  is  for  the  collars ;  this  is  for  the 
linen  ;  this  is  for  the  jewelry  ;  this  is  for  the  shoes.  Every  closet 
is  as  much  appointed  to  its  function,  as  trees  are  to  the  bearing  of 
leaves. 

To  such  an  orderly  creature  comes,  sometimes,  by  birth,  a  child 
who  has  not  a  particle  of  order.  And  the  mother  is  all  amazement. 
(The  standing  wonder  of  every  family,  is,  "  Where  did  this  child  get 
these  traits  ?"  And  the  standing  reply  of  the  father  is,  "  Not  from 
me,  my  dear ;  "  and  of  the  mother,  "  Not  from  me !  ")  In  some 
mysterious  way,  for  back,  doubtless,  there  was  a  drop  of  blood  which 
came  in  carrying  the  element  of  disorder  Avith  it ;  and  it  breaks  out 
in  tliis  member  of  the  family. 

The  development  of  traits  in  others  which  are  the  exact  opposite 
of  ours,  is  made  the  excuse  for  unreasonable  blaming  and  punish- 
ing ;  whereas  we  are  commanded  to  bear  the  burdens  of  others — in 
the  sense  of  helping  those  burdens,  and  so  fulfilling  the  law  of 
Christ. 

A  man  who  is  naturally  dry,  is  immensely  shocked  at  folks  who 
are  naturally  juicy.  A  man  whose  tongue  can  seldom  be  waked  up, 
and  then  only  in  monosyllables,  gravely  criticises  the  man  whose 
tongue  rattles  perpetually,  and  who  talks,  not  by  the  impetus  of 


OTHER  MEN'S  FAILINGS.  407 

thought,  but  simply  by  the  general  impulse  to  say  something.  A 
genius  to  talk  is  as  much  born  in  a  man  without  regard  to  whether 
he  has  anything  to  say  or  not,  as  a  genius  not  to  talk.  A  man 
who  has  energy  cannot  bear  folks  who  have  none.  A  man  who  is 
courageous  and  hopeful,  and  sees  only  success  ahead — how  he  derides 
a  man  who  is  timid  and  desponding  !  "  That  fellow,"  you  say,  "had 
a  chance  to  start  with  me ;  but  he  stood  and  shivered,  and  did  noth- 
ing, and  now  he  is  a  miserable  wretch  ;  while  I  went  on  and  have 
been  successful."  You  went  on  simply  by  reason  of  your  peculiar 
organization.  You  are  constitutionally  courageous  ;  and  your  busi- 
ness was  to  have  imparted  something  of  your  courage  to  him — you 
ought  to  have  borne  his  burden.  You  are  naturally  soft  and  gentle, 
and  that  man  is  naturally  blunt  and  harsh ;  so  you  avoid  him  as 
you  would  a  cliflf.  But  that  is  not  right.  You  ought  to  throw 
your  graces  over  him,  and  cover  him,  as  a  vine  runs  over  the 
cliff  and  makes  it  most  glorious  by  the  leaves  which  it  puts 
out. 

In  the  same  line  is  that  conceit  which  we  have  of  our  excellence 
and  of  others'  deficiencies,  Avhere  our  excellence  has  been  the  re- 
sult of  our  circumstances  in  life,  and  their  deficiencies  the 
result  of  the  conditions  in  which  they  are  living.  There  are  a  great 
many  persons  who  are  walking,  to-day,  in  undisguised  wickedness 
through  the  street,  whom  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  does  not  blame  as 
much  as  he  does  you,  who  are  unsullied  in  your  purity — such  is  the 
distance  between  their  circumstances  and  yours,  and  such  was  the 
distance  between  their  childhood  influences  and  yours. 

There  are  poor  wretched  wom'en  in  New  York  whom  you  would 
not  walk  one  square  by  the  side  of,  for  the  sake  of  your  reputation, 
— no,  not  to  save  them.  There  are  persons  that  you  revolt  from ; 
and  yet,  if  the  dear  Master  was  here  on  earth,  very  likely  he  would 
say  to  you  what  he  once  said  in  the  faces  of  men — "  The  publican 
and  the  harlot  shall  go  into  the  kingdom  of  God  before  you."  They 
inherited  imperative  qualities  of  evil.  They  were  brought  up  by 
parents  who  taught  them  transgression  as  a  filial  duty.  They  were 
left  unsheltered  to  every  Avind  of  temptation.  They  are  living 
among  men  as  beasts  live  among  beasts,  with  none  to  teach,  none  to 
help,  none  to  succor.  Their  mothers'  arms  were  the  cradle  of  in- 
iquity. And  their  evil  course,  wliich,  under  the  circumstances,  is  al- 
most as  natural  as  that  water  should  flow  down  a  channel,  we  look 
upon  with  loathing.  Yet,  if  we  had  been  living  in  their  circum- 
stances, we  should  have  been  worse  than  they  are.  We  are  better 
than  they  are,  not  on  account  of  any  virtue  of  our  own,  but  on  ac- 
count of  our  organization — because  it  pleased  God  to  put  us  in  a 


408  OTHEB  MEN'S  FAILINGS. 

fort,  and  them  on  the  plain.     They  were  taken  captive,  while  stone 
walls  defended  us.     It  was  our  circumstances  that  saved  us. 

I  do  not  say  that  such  protection  is  not  a  blessing.  It  is.  But  we 
Bhould  temper  our  judgment.  We  should  think  how  much  we  owe 
to  our  opportunities ;  to  the  public  sentiment  around  about  us ;  to 
the  families  with  which  we  have  associated ;  to  education  ;  to  what 
our  father  and  mother  did  in  us.  It  is  these  things  that  make  us 
what  we  are.  It  is  not  our  own  excellence.  It  is  nothino:  that  we 
ourselves  have  done.  By  the  grace  of  God,  we  are  what  we  are.  "We 
are  not  to  take  tliat  goodness  in  us  which  is  the  gift  of  a  favoring 
Providence  to  make  us  arrogant  critics,  and  censors,  and  punishers 
of  that  which  is  bad  in  those  who  are  below  us,  and  which  is  the 
result  of  their  less  favorable  circumstances. 

!N^ow,  having  given  illustrations  enough  to  enable  you  to  apply 
this  principle  in  all  the  phases  of  your  life,  let  me  say  that  in  my 
own  experience  I  have  found  one  thing  that  has  been  more  provo- 
cative of  good  results,  and  has  helped  me  more,  than  any  other.  I 
am  naturally  passionate,  and  combative,  and  defensory.  If  any 
man  thinks  I  do  not  know  how  to  strike,  he  misjudges  very  much. 
Naturally,  my  first  impulse  is  to  strike;  but  as  I  grow  older  I  like 
striking  less  and  less.  Less  and  less,  I  have  that  feeling  which 
would  repay  evil  with  evil.  More  and  more,  I  am  moved  to  return 
good  for  evil,  according  to  the  example  of  Christ.  I  do  it  with 
great  imperfections,  and  under  strong  temptations,  now  and  then 
missing — every  other  time,  perhaps ;  but  this  one  thing  I  do :  for- 
getting the  mistaJces  that  are  behind,  and  reaching  forth  unto  those 
things  xohich  are  before,  I  press  totcard  the  mark  for  the  prize  of  the 
high  calling  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus,  to  be  manifested  by  a  life  of 
gentleness  and  forbearance,  not  for  myself,  but  for  others.  And  the 
thing  which  helps  me  all  the  time  is  this  :  "  What  has  Christ  done 
for  me  ?  What  am  I  before  him  ?  Can  there  ever  a  man  come  to 
me  the  discrepancy  between  whom  and  me  is  so  great  as  that  be- 
tween me  and  Christ  ?  What  patience,  what  kindness,  what  nour- 
ishing love,  what  wonderful  sparing  mercy  does  Christ  manifest,  all 
the  day  long,  toward  me,  that  am  before  him  relatively  distorted,  a 
cripple,  hateful  in  thought  and  feeling,  with  innumerable  wrong 
deeds  !  And  who  am  I  that  I  should  refuse  to  extend  some  gentle- 
ness, and  love,  and  kindness  toward  those  around  about  me  who 
have  offended  me  ? 

What  is  being  a  Christian?  It  is  having  in  you  the  spirit  oi 
Christ.  It  is  loving  the  unlovely.  It  is  forgiving  your  enemies.  It 
is  helping  those  who  are  imperfect  and  hateful.  It  is  bearing  one 
another's  burdens.    It  is  bearing  with  the  weak,  and  not  seeking  to 


OTEEE  MEN'S  FAILINGS.  409 

please  yourselves.  It  is  this  cross-bearing  in  love  that  makes  you 
disciples  of  Christ,  and  not  the  fact  that  you  believe  this,  that,  or 
the  other  creed.  It  is  having  in  you  the  mind  and  will,  the  spirit, 
of  Christ. 

Brethren,  if  you  have  intelligence  while  you  are  dying,  and  you 
look  back  on  your  way  of  life,  I  do  not  think  you  will  recall  your 
property-building  with  any  particular  pleasure.  You  may  not  re- 
call it  with  displeasure ;  but  I  do  not  think  it  Avill  be  the  things  that 
you  have  gathered  about  you  that  will  cheer  you  in  that  hour.  I  do 
not  think  the  praises,  the  honors,  or  the  comforts  you  have  had,  and 
the  happiness  you  have  experienced,  will  be  the  things  that  you  will 
remember  then.  But  if,  when  you  are  about  to  have  the  veil  taken 
away,  there  shall  come  up  to  you  the  thought  of  the  men  whom 
you  have  succored,  of  the  poor  that  you  have  befriended,  of  the 
ignorant  that  you  have  taught,  of  the  children  Avho  would  have 
perished  ignominiously  had  it  not  been  for  you,  but  who  have  grown 
up  to  honor  and  usefulness ;  if,  as  the  effulgence  of  the  long-expect- 
ed land  is  about  to  break  upon  you,  you  have  the  Avitness  that  the 
life  which  you  have  lived  in  the  flesh,  you  have  lived  by  the  faith  and 
in  the  spirit  of  the  S^n  of  God,  and  that  from  earth  you  are  going 
to  God — tlien  the  experiences  of  your  dying  love  will  be  as  sweet  as 
angel  voices  to  you.  When  the  flesh  shall  fail,  there  will  troop 
about  you  bands  of  blessed  angels  that  shall  be  your  convoys,  and 
shall  bear  you  up,  and  bring  you  home  to  Him,  a  spark  of  whose 
love  in  you  has  led  to  benevolent  self-danials  in  your  life. 


PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

Almighty  God,  we  thank  thee  for  the  revelation  which  thou  hast  made 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  of  thy  love  and  of  thy  goodness.  Thy  power 
and  thy  justice  we  have  learned  in  the  things  which  have  been  created 
around  about  us.  We  can  discern  in  nature  that  trangression  is  guilty  and 
punishable,  and  that  pain  waits  on  defect  and  transgression.  But  that  there 
was  pardon,  and  that  love  had  healing  in  it — this  thou  hast  taught  us  in 
Jesus.  This  thou  art  teaching  us  in  our  own  experience,  now  exalted  and 
made  morally  significant.  We  read  the  concealed  meauiugs  of  thin  j.s  in  the 
parental  relation ;  in  the  life  of  friends;  in  love  one  toward  another.  And 
we  rejoice  that  thou  art  mailing  sacred,  with  the  impress  of  thine  own  inter- 
pretation, things  before  esteemed  natural  and  common,  that  through  them 
we  may  interpret  God,  and  augment  and  magnify  all  that  which  in  us  ia 
imperfect,  rendering  it  inliuite  and  glorious  and  perfect.  We  rejoice  that 
there  is  a  home,  a  summer,  a  land  of  perfectuess,  beyond  this  world ;  and 
that  we  are  not  as  those  who  di-ift  upon  an  unknown  stream,  knowing  not 
J  whither  it  shall  carry  them.  We  rejoice  that  the  stream  of  life  bears  us  to- 
ward tLe  better  land.  We  rejoice  to  believe  that  thou  art  gathering  there, 
on  every  side,  those  who  are  to  be  saved.     We  rejoice  that  thou  art  making 


41  0  OTEEB  MEIPS  FAILINGS. 

heaven  rich  -with  the  noble  ones  w^ho  have  been  transformed  by  thy  graoe 
upon  earth,  and  who  here  in  disguise  were  the  sons  of  God,  made  known 
there ;  often  mute  here,  but  breaking  forth  in  songs  there  ;  humble  and  ob- 
scure here,  but  shining  as  the  stars  of  the  flrmanent  there ;  the  lowest  and  the 
last  here,  but  the  first  and  the  most  glorious  there.  We  rejoice  not  only 
that  thou  art  making  heaven  rich,  but  that  thou  art  making  it  dear  and 
attractive,  because  there  are  so  many  there  whom  we  have  known ;  because 
we  are  able  to  interpret  something  of  it  by  our  human  sympathy.  "We 
follow  after  those  who  with  tears  we  followed  to  the  grave.  We  go  through 
the  grave  by  faith,  that  we  may  find  them  who  were  not  given  up,  but  who 
are  ours  forever.  We  must  needs  find  them  in  the  heavenly  land  ;  and  we 
hover  arouud  about  them  in  our  thoughts.  And  so  heaven  is  made  bright 
to  us.  It  is  no  longer  a  cold  city  built  of  stone,  or  of  crystal,  or  of  gold 
shining  afar  off :  it  is  the  summer  land  in  the  soul.  And  there  our  hearts 
are,  where  our  treasure  is.  And  we  rejoice  that  thou  art  making  us  more  and 
more,  not  only  to  discern,  but  to  long  for,  that  rest  which  remaineth  for  the 
people  of  God.  Not  that  we  would  be  unclothed,  but  that  we  would  be 
clothed  upon.  Not  that  we  are  unwilling  to  bear  our  burden?,  and  stand  iu 
our  lot  in  the  great  battle  of  the  Lord  ;  but  when  it  is  thy  righteous  will  we 
shall  be  ready  to  lay  down  our  arms  and  go  forth.  We  discern  the  better 
life,  and  the  better  attainments,  and  long  for  them.  We  are  weary  of  sin, 
and  of  temptations  thereto.  We  are  weary  of  our  strength  in  things  that 
are  evil,  and  of  our  weakness  in  things  that  are  good.  We  discern  how  im- 
perfect are  all  things  and  the  best  things  in  human  life,  and  have  intima- 
tions that  there  is  a  land  not  far  beyond  us  where  all  things  shall  perfect; 
themselves.  Wc  desire  to  believe  it ;  and  we  beseech  of  thee  that  this  quick- 
ened desire  may  not  leave  us.  But  yet,  may  it  not  make  us  weary  or  dis- 
co raged  in  regard  to  the  things  of  this  life.  May  we  be  sustained  by  our 
faith  and  hope  iu  heaven.  Enable  us  to  endure  more  patiently  and  more 
cheerfully  the  lot  of  this  life.  May  we  e^ery  one  accept  from  the  hands 
of  the  Lord  the  dispensation  which  we  are  in.  Whether  we  be  iu  wealth  or 
in  poverty,  in  strength  or  in  weakness,  in  purity  and  joy  or  wickedness 
and  pain,  may  we  see  the  hand  of  the  Lord  in  the  dispensation  of  his  prov- 
idence toward  us,  and  may  we  accept  it  with  meekness  and  cheerfulness. 
And  even  when  it  seems  mysterious  to  us,  may  we  hear  thee  saying,  "  What  I 
do  now  ye  know  not,  but  ye  shall  know  hereafter."  Grant  th.it  we  may  be 
able  to  perceive  more  and  more  of  God  in  all  things.  May  we  discern  the 
world  not  lonely,  not  abandoned,  but  administered  by  thy  providence  so 
that  all  things  are  under  thine  eye,  no  need  forgotten,  no  tear  forgotten,  no 
groan  nor  sigh  forgotten.  No  temptation,  no  sin,  and  no  recovery  from  sin, 
is  unknown  to  thee.  May  we  believe  that  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  all  around 
about  us,  and  may  we  be  able  to  trust  iu  the  Lord  in  all  our  daily  life  and 
converse. 

We  pray  for  a  better  spirit  in  our  households ;  for  more  gentleness  and 
patience;  for  more  fullness  and  richness  of  love. 

And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  enable  us  in  the  conduct  of  our  business  to 
gain  victories;  to  carry  a  higher  form  of  truth  and  justice  among  men,  ;rad 
to  maintain  it ;  and  that  thus  we  may  become  witnesses  of  the  truth  as  it  is 
in  Jesus. 

We  pray  for  those  who  have  been  overtaken  with  temptation,  and 
swept  away.  May  they  be  recovered  out  of  the  snare  of  disaster  into  which 
they  have  been  carried.  Mayjhose  who  have  abhorred  evil  be  more  and 
more  solicitous  to  rescue  those  who  have  fallen  therein. 

Grant,  O  Lord,  that  the  spirit  which  was  in  Jesus  of  love  to  his  enemies, 
of  love  to  those  that  did  not  love  him,  but  hated  him,  may  be  in  us.  May  that 
spirit  be  in  us  which  was  also  in  him,  of  abhorring  iniquity.    He  came  to 


OTUEE  MEN^S  FAILINGS^  411 

cleanse  it  from  out  of  the  hearts  of  men,  and  out  of  the  world ;  and  may  we 
work  to  the  same  end.    So  may  we  rise  into  the  glorious  sympathy  of  Jesus. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  bless,  to-day,  all  those  who  everywhere  mention 
thy  name,  and  preach  thy  Gospel;  and  all  those  who  lift  up  holy  hands  of 
supplication.  Grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  they  may  be  united  to  thee  more 
and  more  perfectly,  and  that  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  filling  them,  may  diffuse 
itself  in  a  generous  sympathy,  so  that  we  shall  be  drawn  toward  one  another 
more  and  more. 

"We  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  thy  truth  to  be  productive  of  reform- 
ntion  througQOut  our  laud.  May  justice  and  purity  of  administration 
characterize  our  time.  We  pray  that  we  may  be  kept  back  from  greediness 
and  avarice  and  unprincipled  gain.  We  pray  that  we  may  not  be  given 
over  to  the  ambitions  of  wicked  men.  As  this  great  nation  hath  in  times 
past  been  guided  by  thee  through  multiform  perils,  may  it  still,  under  thy 
guidance,  be  built  up  in  truth  and  justice.  And  may  it  be  a  light  ia  the 
world,  that  nations,  struggling,  may  discern  it,  and  see  a  brighter  future, 
and  follow  that,  and  in  the  knowledge  of  God  find  all  the  beoeflt  which  we 
have  reaped  so  abundantly. 

Grant,  O  Lord,  that  superstition  and  all  its  evils  may  be  purged  away 
from  the  great  mass  of  men,  and  that  they  may  rise  up  in  their  strength  and 
come  to  their  birthright,  and  be  established  in  goodness  and  piety.  Let  that 
blessed  day  come  for  which  we  have  been  so  long  waiting — the  latter-day. 
Let  that  day  come  when  no  man  shall  have  occasion  to  say  to  his  neighbor, 
Know  ye  the  Lord?  because  all  shall  know  him  from  the  greatest  unto  the 
least. 

And  to  thy  name  shall  be  the  praise,  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit.    Amen. 


PKAYER  AFTER  THE  SERMON. 

Grant  unto  us,  our  Father,  thine  own  Spirit.  Interpret  that  Spirit  to  us. 
Graut  in  all  the  difficulties  of  knowing  what  to  do  in  this  life,  that  we  may 
have  tlpe  interpretation  of  sympathy  and  love,  and  i^s  intuitions.  Grant  tbat 
tliis  life  of  faith  and  hope,  this  sense  of  God  present  with  us,  may  be  in  us 
and  around  us,  so  that  it  may  sanctify  our  lives,  exalt  our  motives,  and 
throw  over  other  men  the  light  of  heavenly  intelligence;  that  we  may  not 
look  upon  them  as  mere  factors  of  worldly  things,  but  that  we  may  see 
shining  through  the  immortality  that  is  in  each  man ;  and  that  we  may  feel 
the  brother  ihat  is  lingering  and  undeveloped,  aud  yet  longs  to  come  forth ; 
that  we  may  be  able  to  feel  that  wo  are  parts  one  of  another,  and  all  parts 
of  God.  And  so  joined  together,  may  we  live  the  few  years  which  remain  to 
us,  and  then  depart  to  join  the  blessed  and  perfected  society  in  heaven : 
where  we  will  praise  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Spirit,  forevermorei 
Amen, 


XXII. 

Waiting  upon  God. 


INVOCATION. 

We  draw  near  to  thee,  not  on  account  of  our  worthiness,  but  because  of 
thy  love  and  of  its  infinite  fullness  of  supply  such  as  we  need.  Thou  dost 
lavish  the  sun  upon  places  where  nothing  is  apparent.  Upon  the  wilderness, 
upon  the  sea,  and  upon  the  frozen  hills,  still  thou  dost  pour  forth  its  abun- 
dance and  its  beauty ;  and  yet  are  they  more  barren  than  we.  Shine  upon 
our  ungrateful  hearts.  Warm  our  selfishness  that  it  may  spring  up  into 
fruitful  love.  Grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  this  day  we  may  be  touched  by  thy 
love,  so  that  all  that  is  best  in  ourselves  may  go  out  to  meet  thee. 
May  thy  Word  be  a  living  truth ;  may  the  services  of  instruction  be  profii>- 
able :  may  our  devotions  ascend  willingly  and  gladly ;  and  may  we  this  day 
rest  in  the  Lord.    We  ask  it  for  the  sake  of  Jesus  Christ.    Amen. 

22. 


WAITING  UPOI  GOD. 


"  Be  patient  therefore,  brethren,  unto  the  coming  of  the  Lord.  Behold, 
the  husbandman  waiteth  for  the  precious  fruit  of  the  earth,  and  hath  long 
patience  for  it,  until  he  receive  the  earlj'  and  latter  rain.  Be  ye  also  patient ;, 
stablish  your  hearts:  for  the  coming  of  the  Lord  draweth  nigh." — J  as.  V.^ 
7,  8. 


There  were  peculiar  circumctances  in  the  early  history  of  the 
Christian  churclies  which  rendered  snch  exhortations  particularly 
necessary.  Still,  in  every  age,  substantially  the  same  necessities 
exist,  though  they  may  take  on  different  forms.  And  as  you  go 
back  you  will  find,  in  the  Old  Testament,  abundant  instances  of 
precisely  the  same  counsels,  indicating  the  same  trials  and  the 
same  wants.  To  wait  upon  God,  is  one  of  the  staple  exhortations 
of  the  Old  Testament ;  and  it  is  continued  all  the  way  through  the 
New;  and  if  there  were  to  be  another  Testament  written  to-day, 
that  exhortation  would  still  have  to  occupy  a  prominent  place  in  it. 
For  the  necessity  of  waiting  is  one  that  will  run  through  time,  and 
will  be  universal,  so  long  as  we  are  in  these  mortal  bodies  and  under 
the  dominion  of  the  natural  laws  of  this  world. 

The  Scripture  is  full  of  intense  incitement  to  activity,  to  enter- 
prise. We  are  commanded  to  do  xoith  our  might  xohat  our  hands 
find  to  do.  We  are  commanded  to  work  out  our  oion  salvation 
with  fear  and  trembling.  We  are  told  to  strive  to  enter  in  at  the 
straight  gate. 

These  exhortations  indicate  that  it  is  no  sluggard's  life  which  is 
expected  of  men,  and  that  whatever  may  be  the  merit  and  virtue  of 
waiting,  it  is  not  a  merit  derived  merely  from  indolence. 

Men  are  exhorted  to  quietness  just  as  much  as  they  are  to 
activity.  They  are  exhorted  to  patience  as  much  as  they  are 
to  enterprise.  They  are  exhorted  to  wait,  and  to  wait  patiently,  and 
to  wait  upon  God  ;  and  it  is  so  often  urged  and  represented  that  it 
must  have  had  great  significance  in  the  days  of  old,  as  we  see  it  has 
in  our  time. 

StmnAY  Morning,  Feb.  4,  1873.  Lesson :  PSA.  XXXVn.  1-23.  Hymns  (Plymouth 
CoUectioD)  Nos.  173,  813,  725. 


416  WAITING  UFON  GOD. 

The  whole  attitude  of  this  implied  truth  in  the  Scripture  justi- 
fies a  somewhat  particular  examination  of  it ;  and  the  more  because 
there  are  perversions  which  have  had  sway,  and  which  need  to  be 
exposed,  that  they  may  be  removed. 

I  remark,  then,  in  the  first  place,  that  there  is  no  moral  excel- 
lence in  simply  waiting,  where  waiting  springs  from  idleness,  from 
indifferenc3,  from  indolence.  It  is  not  the  simple  act  of  waiting  that 
is  beneficial.  It  is  waiting  iinder  circumstances  which  require  the 
exertion  of  manliness,  that  brings  the  blessing.  For  the  true 
Christian  idea  of  waiting  upon  God  patiently,  implies  self-restraint, 
trust  in  God,  and  the  exertion  of  superior  elements  of  manhood.  It 
is  a  great  deal  easier  to  act  than  to  stand  still,  when  men  are 
vehemently  pressed  with  necessities.  To  act  first,  and  then  patiently 
to  wait,  is  higher  than  either  of  tliem  separately. 

That  which  is  implied  is  this  :  That  men  have  vehement  desires, 
strong  necessities  ;  that  their  emotions  are  whetted  sharp,  and 
are  in  full  activity  ;  that  they  do  all  that  in  them  lies  of  knowledge 
and  strength  without  receiving  the  blessing  which  they  desire  ;  and 
that  then  there  is  a  grace  in  them  by  which  they  can  stand  quietly 
and  see  the  blessing  not  given,  or  see  it  delayed. 

How  far  this  is  from  that  dullness  which  desires  nothing,  and 
waits  as  the  sluggard  waits  ;  from  that  waiting  upon  God  which 
comes  from  spiritual  indiflference,  where  men  are  just  as  content  to 
be  without  the  divine  influence  as  to  have  it ;  from  all  forms  of  in- 
dolence by  which  men  refuse  to  put  forth  their  natural  and  appro- 
priate energies  ! 

That  wliich  is  meant  is  quietness  in  regard  to  slow-coming  things 
for  which  the  whole  heart  yearns.  "Waiting  upon  God  is  more  emi- 
nently productive  of  the  things  wliich  are  noblest  and  nearest  like 
God.  It  is  patience,  after  one  has  striven  hard  to  work  out  his  own 
salvation,  that  is  here  referred  to.  It  is  strong  confidence  in  the 
immutableness  of  moral  laws.  It  is  confidence  in  God's  overruling, 
overmastering  providence. 

Patient  waiting  upon  God  where  it  exists,  is  not  only 
founded  in  intelligence,  and  in  that  faith  which  is  the  handmaid 
of  intelligence,  but  it  is  a  state  of  submission  and  sweet  relin- 
quishment of  one's  own  urgent  and  importunate  feelings.  It  is 
the  yielding  up  of  everything  into  the  hands  of  God  Avith  confi- 
dence that  the  Judge  of  all  cannot  but  do  justly  ;  and  that  in  his 
own  time  and  way  he  will  fulfill  the  desires  of  our  hearts,  if  they  be 
right ;  or  that  if  they  be  wrong,  he  will  meet  our  wants  with  things 
other  than  those  which  we  seek.  There  are  two  blessings  in  prr.ycr. 
One  is,  that  God  will  give  us  what  we  ask  if  we  are  enlightened,  and 


WAITING  UPON  GOB.  417 

ask  tilings  tliat  are  right  ;  and  tlie  other  is  that  he  will  not  give  ns 
•what  we  ask  unless  we  are  enlightened  and  ask  right  things.  God 
will  grant  onr  petitions  unless  we  plead  for  things  which  are  not  nec- 
essary, or  which  are  not  good  for  us.  He  is  like  parents  in  this  re- 
spect, who  withhold  from  their  children  things  which  they  desire 
and  ask  for,  but  Avhich  it  is  not  best  for  them  to  have. 

Consider  now,  with  these  preliminary  statements,  the  text  which 
we  have  selected. 

"  Be  patient  therefore,  brethren,  unlo  the  coming  of  the  Lord." 

There  is  the  measure  of  the  waiting.  It  is  to  continue  clear 
through  till  the  I^ord  appears ;  till  the  enigma  is  solved ;  till  the 
mystery  is  eclaircised.  To  those  to  whom  this  was  addressed,  it 
meant  the  final  coming  of  the  great  church  which  they  thought 
would  take  place  in  their  own  time ;  but  to  us  it  means  the  coming 
of  the  Lord  in  the  solution  of  difficulties,  and  in  the  fulfillment 
of  any  great  blessings  which  we  seek. 

"  Behold,  the  husbandman  waiteth  for  the  precious  fruit  of  the  earth, 
and  hath  long  patience  for  it,  until  he  receive  the  early  and  latter  rain." 

There  could  be  no  more  admirable  analogue  than  this  of  hus- 
bandry; for  there  is  in  it  the  most  obvious  union  of  persistent 
natural  laws  with  human  activity,  which  bears  the  same 
relation  to  natural  laws  that  the  rider  does  to  the  horse.  It  is  the 
horse  that  performs.  It  is  the  rider  that  steers  and  guides  him. 
Natural  laws,  of  themselves,  are  brute  forces,  wandering  Avide,  and 
doing  little.  It  is  not  until  great  natural  laws,  if  I  may  say  so,  are 
inspired  by  human  volition  and  human  intelligence,  that  they  be- 
come productive  of  good — that  they  know  how  to  converge  and 
cooperate  so  as  to  multiply  blessings  upon  the  earth.  Without 
natural  laws  man  is  utterly  helpless.  Without  men  natural  laws  are 
largely  useless.  Man,  knowing  how  to  use  those  great  physical, 
permanent  laws,  directs  them  to  certain  purposes.  This  combina- 
tion it  is  that  makes  fruitfulness  in  our  fields.  Human  strength 
makes  natural  laws  productive.  What  are  cities  but  the  insignia 
of  thought  applied  to  brute  and  dead  material  ?  Behold  how  all 
abroad,  from  materials  of  stone,  there  are  reared  up  these  structures 
which  have  on  them,  every  one,  the  signet  of  a  natural  law,  and 
every  one  the  signet  of  human  thought.  What  are  gardens,  what 
are  vineyards,  what  are  orchards,  Avhat  are  grain-fields,  Avhat  are 
railroads,  what  are  canals,  Avhat  are  tunnels,  what  are  biidges, 
what  are  highways,  but  the  union  of  divine  natural  laAV  and 
human  intelligence  ?  Witliout  the  one  and  the  other  they  were 
impossible.  There  has  been  a  union  for  the  production  of  all 
of  them.     There  has  been  a  vitalizing  energy  derived  from  men. 


418  WAITING  UPON  GOD. 

There  lias  been  patience  in  finding  out,  in  inventing,  in  perfecting. 
Throngli  ages  the  world  had  been  waiting  for  the  things  which  toe 
inherited  at  birth.  They  are  common  to  us.  The  very  carpet  on 
which  you  tread  has  been  for  thousands  of  years  learning  how  to  be 
woven ;  and  its  colors  how  to  be  extracted,  and  how  to  be  applied. 
The  very  raiment  which  covers  you  has  a  long  history.  What 
changes  have  taken  place  in  the  machineries ;  in  the  various  imple- 
ments ;  in  the  processes  of  dyeing !  These  things  are  results  of  human 
thought  running  through  generations  and  generations.  Human 
society  itself  is  a  vast  museum  and  exhibition-hall,  as  it  Avere,  show- 
ing what  man's  nature  has  been  able  to  do  when  it  has  worked  upon 
the  divine  law. 

See  what  husbandry  does  every  year !  We  prepare  the  soil.  We 
do  not  make  it.  It  is  ready  at  our  hand.  For  generations  God's 
mills  have  been  grinding,  the  glacier  and  the  rock  have  come  to- 
gether ;  the  subtle  water,  made  solid  by  cold,  and  moving  per 
force,  has  ground  and  ground ;  and  behold,  the  soil  that 
has  in  it  the  results  of  the  workings  of  cycles  of  centuries. 
Man  finds  it  ready  waiting  for  him.  It  is  waiting  for  man 
as  much  as  man  is  waiting  for  it.  It  is  only  Avhen  by  his 
skill  the  plow  opens  the  furrow,  and  he  sows  intelligently, 
studying  the  seasons,  the  markets,  and  the  pressing  necessities 
of  men  about  him;  it  is  only  when,  waiting  patiently  through 
months  if  it  be  fields  of  grain,  or  if  it  be  orchards  and  vineyards 
through  years,  that  he  begins  to  find  remuneration. 

Farmers  wait,  and  wait  patiently,  and  wait  confidently;  and 
their  waiting  is  from  no  laggard's  indolence.  It  is  from  a  conscious- 
ness that  they  have  done  that  Avhich,  cooperating  with  natural  law, 
will  produce  the  desired  results.  God's  stamp  is  upon  natural  law, 
and  it  is  warranted  to  cut,  and  not  to  fail.  The  farmer  Avaits  in 
intelligence ;  the  sluggard  waits  in  laziness.  The  farmer  thrives ; 
the  sluggard  degenerates.  The  farmer  has  abundance ;  the  slug- 
gard suffers  cold  in  winter,  and  want  the  year  round. 

Men  who  refuse  to  do  anything  in  God's  vineyard  oftentimes 
pretend  to  honor  God's  sovereignty  by  waiting  upon  God ;  but  who 
would  think  that  he  was  honoring  nature's  sovereignty  by  waiting 
on  it  thus  ?  There  be  those  who  say  it  is  presumptuous  for  man  to 
put  forth  his  hand  and  touch  the  work  of  God.  There  is  nothing 
more  erroneous  than  to  suppose  it  to  be  presumption  for  man  to  put 
forth  his  hand  and  touch  God's  work,  if  he  do  it  reverently  and 
intelligently ;  but  there  are  those  Avho  seek  for  nothing,  and  long 
for  nothing  as  a  special  desire,  and  call  that  waitii^g  loith 
reverence  upon  God!     They  are  afraid  of  interfering  Avith   the 


WAITING  UPON  GOD.  419 

sphere  of  divine  authority  and  divine  sovereignty.  It  is  their  own 
spiritual  indolence  that  leads  them  to  wait ;  for  no  one  of  them  that 
owns  a  ship  sails  that  ship  as  ho  does  his  soul,  ^o  ojie  of  them  that 
has  a  farm  manages  that  farm  in  husbandry  as  he  does  his  soul  in 
spiritual  things.  He  must  know  how  to  work  who  is  to  knoAV  how 
to  wait.  He  must  experience  fatigue  who  is  to  appreciate  the  bless- 
ing of  rest.  He  must  have  enterprise  who  is  to  understand  the  great 
charm  of  patient  waiting  upon  God. 

Look,  then,  at  the  sphere  in  which  this  virtue  of  waiting  is  to 
operate.  Bearing  in  mind  the  nature  of  that  waiting  which  brings 
a  blessing,  we  shall  see  that  there  is  a  sphere  for  it  in  our  lives  full 
as  great  as  there  was  in  the  lives  of  those  of  old,  though  we  are  dif- 
ferently placed  from  what  they  were.  We  shall  see,  also,  that  one 
of  the  most  common  traits  of  a  true  piety  is  that  of  patient  waiting. 
As  in  all  the  emergencies  of  secular  life  Ave  are  called  to  wait 
patiently,  so  we  are  in  all  the  emergencies  of  religious  life. 

This  may  seem  very  little  to  the  prosperous.  The  profounder 
moral  truths  of  the  word  of  God  seem  well-nigh  wasted  upon  those 
who  are  walking  upon  a  highway  cast  up,  and  who  are  protected 
with  abundance.  The  very  nature  of  things  favors  them.  They 
can  scarcely  by  imagination  strip  themselves  of  their  happy  circum- 
stances, and  go  down  into  the  places  of  those  for  Avliom  the  most 
special  parts  of  the  word  of  God  are  pronounced.  For  the  Bible 
takes  care  a  great  deal  more  of  the  poor,  and  needy,  and  humble. 
and  broken-hearted,  than  it  does  if  those  who  are  full,  and  have 
consciously  no  necessities.  There  are  thousands  and  thousansd 
who  wage  daily  battle  for  their  very  existence.  It  is  a  matter  of 
little  thought  to  you,  Avhere  your  food  shall  come  from.  You  choose 
between  luxury  and  luxury ;  between  variety  and  variety.  "What 
had  we  yesterday  ?"  is  to  determine,  "  What  shall  we  have  to-day  ?" 
But  there  are  thousands  and  thousands  (some  of  them  within  a 
stone's  cast  of  your  very  doors)  who  are  obliged  literally  to  pray  the 
Lord's  prayer,  "  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread."  There  are 
those  who  to-day  w^ander  from  street  to  street  without  shelter. 
There  are  those  w^ho  have  none  to  greet  them  when  the  sun 
goes  down ;  who  have  no  roaring  fire,  no  cozy  nook  or  corner,  no 
wife  or  children  running  out  to  give  them  welcome.  Strangers  in  a 
strange  land  are  they;  and  many  of  them  Avorse  than  that.  By 
their  OAvn  fault  they  are  so,  often,  let  it  be  said ;  but  sometimes  they 
are  so  Avithout  their  OAvn  fault.  They  are  broken  in  health,  broken 
in  courage,  broken  in  spirit.  The  Avhole  Avorld  is  a  storm  to  them. 
EveryAvhere  is  a  desert  to  their  feet.  They  are  in  the  Avilderness,  as 
it  Avere,  torn  by  thorns  and  by  briers.  Every  day  their  life  is  a  cam- 
paign against  physical  trouble. 


420  WAITING  UPON  GOB. 

You  live  happily  because  your  house  is  ceiled  and  warmed ;  be- 
cause it  is  proof  against  the  summer  rains  and  the  winter's  cold ;  be- 
cause it  affords  protection  the  year  round ;  and  because  your  eyes 
read  lessons  of  beauty  from  the  walls  which  God  has  enabled  you 
abundantly  to  furnish  and  replenish.  But  are  there  none  near  t» 
■you  who  weep  by  day  and  by  night,  and  are  drenched  by  the  rain,, 
and  shiver  with  the  cold  ?  Are  there  not  many  who  think  to-day, 
as  the  most  urgent  thought  of  their  life,  ^'  What  shall  I  do  to-mor- 
row ?"  Are  there  not  many  who  are  let  out  of  prison  as  Peter  was, 
by  some  angel  of  mercy,  into  the  great  and  barren  street,  at  night, 
and  who  wander  up  and  down,  and  knock,  as  he  did,  without  ob- 
taining entrance?  Are  there  not  hundreds  and  thousands  who 
earn  Avages  which  they  cannot  get,  which  are  pitilessly  withheld 
from  them,  and  who  are  suffering  from  the  severity  of  winter? 
Are  there  not  advantages  being  taken,  on  every  hand,  of  weakness 
and  ignorance  ?  The  destruction  of  the  poor  is  their  poverty.  They 
cannot  be  economical.  They  cannot  make  provision  for  the  future. 
It  is  not  possible  for  them,  in  their  foresight,  to  do  in  the  present 
hour  for  the  hour  which  is  to  come.  "  Sufiicient  unto  the  day  is 
the  evil  thereof."  Sufficient  unto  the  single  hour,  often,  are  the  ac- 
quisitions thereof — and  only  for  the  single  hour.  I 

Then  there  are  heart  matters.  It  is  sore  for  one's  self  to  be 
hungry  and  friendless  ;  but  how  much  sorer  is  it  to  see  those  whom 
you  love  suffering,  and  to  plead,  to  search,  to  labor,  and  to  see  them 
suffer  still,  and  to  hear  only  sighs  and  cries  of  want — and  that  too, 
in  the  very  sight  of  comforts — in  the  midst  of  abundance  !  Bitterer 
than  everything  else  is  it  to  see  children  suffer ;  yea,  to  see  those 
whom  Ave  love  as  our  own  life  sickening  and  wasting,  and  to  say 
in  ourselves,  "  Oh,  were  I  but  rich,  this  child  might  bo  spared  to 
me !  but  I  am  poor.  I  can  neither  travel  afiir  for  better  skill,  nor 
nourish  Avith  such  distant  luxuries  as  would  bring  strength  to  the 
blood."  It  is  poverty,  often,  that  must  needs  slay  the  little  child. 
And  if  that  child  had  the  same  blessings  of  God's  providence  Avhich 
have  been  rained  on  others,  might  it  not  go  on  to  an  honorable 
manhood,  and  to  a  brighter  future  ?  Alas,  for  those  Avho  are  shut 
up  in  their  poverty ;  Avho  are  straightened  in  their  circumstance  ; 
Avho  are  strangers  in  a  strange  land ;  Avho  are  hedged  in  on  every 
side !      Here  is  an  opportunity  for  Avaiting  upon  God. 

Waiting  upon  God  uoav  means,  for  you,  Avaiting  in  the  midst 
of  your  upholstered  abundance.  Such  Avaiting  is  not  a  very  signal 
virtue;  but  Avhen  the  loaf  fails,  Avhen  the  scuttle  is  empty,  Avlien 
the  night  brings  but  shivering,  then,  having  done  all  that  in  you 
lies,  to  have  such  confidence  in  God's  fatherly  love,  in  spite  of  ap- 


WAITING  UPON  GOD.  421 

pearances,  to  have  such  a  belief  in  the  other  hfe  ifl  spite  of  seeming 
contradictions,  as  to  be  able  to  rise  above  suffering — that  is  true 
waiting  upon  God. 

Blessed  are  they  who  have  learned  this  lesson  out  of  their  physi- 
cal ti'ials  and  necessities,  so  that  they  are  able,  when  all  other  aid 
fails,  at  least  to  feel  that  God  is  their  strength,  and  will  be  their  sal- 
vation. Saith  the  Master  to  you,  "  Are  ye  not  better  than  many 
sparrows  ?  Why  take  ye  thought  for  food  and  raiment  ?  God  takes 
care  of  you." 

There  is  the  charter  of  faith.     God  says  he  remembers  you,  and 

will  succor  you  ;  and  if  the  relief  is  delayed,  we  are  not  to  despond. 

"  Shall  not  God  avenge  his  own  elect,  -which  cry  day  and  night  unto  him, 
though  he  bear  long  with  them  ?  " 

There  are  a  great  many  (such  is  the  strange  play  which  is  going 
on  in  life,  not  upon  exhibition)  who,  this  day,  are  suffering  cares 
and  anxieties  which  are  natural,  but  not  necessary,  considered  from 
a  higher  point  of  view,  in  their  changed  conditions  of  life.  There 
are  a  great  many  who  say,  piteously,  and  too  often  into  ears  of  stone, 
"  I  have  not  always  been  what  I  am.  I  have  walked  in  a  higher 
sphere."  It  is  a  natural  sympathy  which  we  experience  when  we 
see  those  who  have  been  inured  to  refinement,  yea  to  luxury,  thrown 
down  to  the  bottom  by  the  revolution  of  the  great  wheel  of  events. 
But  it  marks  and  condemns  the  system  of  education  which  one 
has  been  under,  when  it  leads  that  one  to  weakness  and  helpless- 
ness. When  you  show  me  a  man  who  has  been  cultured,  you  ought 
to  show  me  a  man  that  is  better  built  to  meet  the  contingencies  of 
life  than  any  that  are  uncultured. 

During  the  war  we  sent  into  the  camp  both  classes;  and  we  ex- 
pected the  rude  swain,  who  had  known  only  coarseness,  would  make 
a  better  soldier,  and  resist  all  the  hardships  of  the  field  more  easily 
than  the  young  man  who  had  passed  through  college,  or 
Avho  had  been  brought  up  in  the  midst  of  wealth  and  refinement; 
but  experience  did  not  justify  that  expectation.  It  was  found,  on  the 
contrary,  that  although  the  regiments  that  were  gathered  from  the 
country  were  physically  hardier  than  those  that  came  from  the 
cities,  they,  after  all,  could  not  endure  the  service  as  Avell.  It  was 
found  that  those  who  came  from  the  cities,  and  had  more  mind, 
more  brain-power,  and  had  been  brought  up  in  wealth  and  with 
culture,  were  more  efficient  than  the  opposite  class.  It  was  found 
that  educated  intelligence  was  a  better  preservative  than  mere  mus- 
cular strength,  and  that  those  who  had  been  brought  up  in  dainty 
conditions  of  life,  adapted  themselves  more  easily  to  the  hardships 
of  the  camp  than  those  who  came  from  the  poorer  ranks  of  society. 


422  WAITING  UPON  GOD, 

It  was  found  that  men  who  had  mental  resources  could  bear  up  un- 
der wounds,  and  would  recover,  where  tliose  who  were  without  such 
resources  were  more  apt  to  sicken  and  die.  It  is  the  result  of  educa- 
tion to  make  men  more  enduring,  not  simply  in  the  midst  of  favor- 
able circumstances,  but  everywhere. 

It  is  said  that  when  the  French  nobility  were  expelled  from 
France,  after  the  French  Eevolution,  they  bore  tlieir  exile  and  wan- 
derings more  nobly,  and  were  more  self-lielpful,  than  the  com- 
mon peasantry,  or  than  men  in  the  lower  ranks  of  life  who  were 
also  expelled.  And  Avhen  the  Hungarian  expulsion  brought  Kos- 
suth and  his  noble  band  to  this  country,  no  equal  number  of  men 
ever  justified  culture  more,  by  adapting  themselves  to  their  circum- 
stances, and  without  complaint  or  repining  meeting  the  hardships 
of  their  changed  methods  of  livelihood.  A  true  education  makes  a 
man  larger  and  better,  and  fits  liim  for  revolutions.  If  one  has  lived 
in  refinement,  and  in  a  changed  condition  goes  down  to  the  bottom, 
and  comes  in  contact  with  barrenness  and  coarseness,  that  culture 
which  he  has  acquired  sustains  him,  and  makes  him  superior  to  his 
condition.  The  inwardness  of  a  man  should  be  ample  in  proportion 
as  his  outwardness  is  meagre.  A  man  should  hold  himself  adequate 
to  any  place  or  function,  and  he  should  understand  that  God  has  a 
providence  for  every  circumstance,  and  that  he  never  puts  a  burden 
on  shoulders  that  have  not  strength  to  bear  it.  Let  not  persons 
therefore  who  have  been  in  better  circumstances  in  life ;  let  not 
children  whose  fathers  and  mothers  could  do  much  for  them  Avhile 
they  were  living,  but  who  are  now  fatherless  and  motherless,  the 
property  being  scattered,  and  some  of  them  having  been  sent  out  to 
service,  some  of  them  from  necessity  having  resorted  to  teaching,  and 
some  of  them  being  dependant  upon  relatives — let  not  such  persons  go 
all  their  life  moaning,  and  complaining  of  the  hardness  of  God's  deal- 
ings with  them.  Let  them  rather  wait  upon  God,  and  rise  up  to  a 
higher  insight  of  his  administration,  and  endeavor  to  adapt  them- 
selves to  it,  and  to  reap  its  benefits. 

Did  you  ever  stand  by  the  side  of  a  tree  in  summer  from  whose 
side  was  issuing  some  sugary  matter,  and  see  ants  running  up  and 
down,  those  coming  down  being  filled,  and  those  going  up  being 
empty  ?  Just  exactly  so  it  is  in  society.  There  are  two  currents, 
one  going  up  and  the  other  coming  down,  those  that  are  coming 
down  having  been  up  and  got  their  fill  of  sugar,  as  it  were,  and 
others  going  up  empty. 

If  there  are  any  in  life  who  have  a  right  to  show  ill-nature  and 
despondency,  it  certainly  is  those  who  are  the  victims  of  a  change  of 
circumstances.     But  even  if  your  circumstances  are  changed  for  the 


WAITING  UPON  GOD.  423 

■U'orso,  that  is  no  reason  why  3^011  should  be  disconragcd,  or  become 

soured  in  your  disposition.     Even  the  corn  siiould  teach  you.     For 

when  the  corn  is  rudely  shelled  from  the  cob  by  the  swine's  mouth? 

and  trampled  into  the  mire,  it  does  not  complain.     It  sprouts  and 

grows  again.    So  it  triumphs.     And  if  you  have  met  with  a  change 

of  circumstances,  do  not  stand  repining  at  your  lot,  but  wait   upon 

God,  in  the  hope  that  you  will  recover  whatever  you  have  lost  that 

it  is  desirable  for  you  to  have.     Eemember  this : 

'  When  my  father  and  my  mother  forsake  me,  then  the  Lord  Tvill  take 
me  up." 

There  are,  also,  those  who  are  brought  to  a  great  train  of  emer- 
gencies, to  perplexities  in  tlieir  affairs,  which  involve  their  whole 
pov/er,  and  the  very  comfort  of  their  household.  There  are  those 
who  seem  driving  down  the  cataract,  and  who,  though  they  make 
every  exertion,  seem  not  to  be  able  to  change  their  course,  nor  to 
hold  back.  We  come  into  such  passages,  every  one  of  us,  first  or 
last.  We  pass  through  emergencies  where  our  present  prosperity 
Eeems  to  have  been  undermined,  or  to  have  passed  away.  A  man's 
wealth  IS  like  the  snow-houses  which  we  boys  built  in  the  olden 
time  on  high  drifts.  No  sooner  had  the  sun  come  forth  than  our 
houses  melted,  and  the  foundations  shpped  from  under  them.  Our 
possessions  are  built  on  foundations  as  treacherous  as  those.  Men 
seek  prosperity  in  this  life ;  and  when  they  have  attahied  it,  how 
many  of  them  have  plowed  furrows  of  care  in  their  brow  !  What 
sleepless  nights,  Avhat  restless  days,  what  sorrows,  what  sufferings  do 
they  go  through  to  acquire  it !  A  man's  money,  or  poAver,  oftentimes 
is  not  worth  what  it  costs  of  toil  and  anguish. 

Here  is  the  time  for  those  who  have  a  true  faith  in  God  to  rest 
in  him ;  to  put  all  their  affairs  into  his  hand.  Surely  you  will  exert 
yourself,  and  do  the  best  you  can ;  but  every  man  sooner  or  later 
comes  to  a  point  at  which  exertion  can  go  no  further;  and  that  is 
the  lime  to  cast  anchor,  and  to  say,  "I  wait  for  thee,  0  God  of  my 
salvation." 

A  friend  of  mine  came  on  to  the  coast,  some  twenty-five  or  tlnrty 
years  ago ;  and  there  was  but  a  distance  of  tvrenty-four  hours  between 
him  and  JSTew  York ;  and  there  he  lay,  beating  off  and  on,  off  and  on, 
unable  to  make  any  headway.  One  day  everything  seemed  to  threaten 
instant  destruction  ;  and  tlie  captain,  when  he  had  done  evcrytliino- 
that  his  knowledge  or  skill  could  devise,  lit  his  cigar,  and  stood  upon 
the  quarter-deck,  wrapping  himself  in  his  raiment,  and  leaning  very 
quietly  against  the  rail.  My  friend  said  to  him,  "  Do  you  think  the 
peril  IS  great?"  "Imminent,  instant,"  said  he.  "Why,  then,  jr  ■; 
you  so  quiet  ?"    "  I  have  done  everything  that  I  can  do,  and  what  ia 


424  WAITING  UPON  GOD. 

the  use  of  attempting  to  do  more  ?"  He  rested  ;  and  it  was  not  an 
unintelligent  nor  indolent  rest ;  it  Avas  a  rest  founded  on  the  con- 
sciousness that  he  had  gone  to  the  measure  of  his  power. 

There  is  a  sphere  in  domestic  experience  for  this  waiting  upon 
God — this  trusting  in  the  Lord.  What  other  hours  in  life  are  like 
those  which  we  have  with  our  children  ?  The  first  faint  flush  on  the 
child's  face;  its  increased  sensibility ;  its  pettishness ;  its  crying  with 
pain ;  its  subsidence  and  passivity  in  the  mothers  lap ;  the  calling 
of  the  physician ;  the  anxious  repeated  visits ;  the  days  and  the 
nights  of  Avatching ;  the  child  still  sinking ;  the  calling  in  of  other 
physicians ;  the  doing  of  all  that  love  can  do ;  and  still  the  child 
steadily  sinking ;  the  life  leaking  out ;  everything  that  can  be  done 
to  save  the  child  having  been  done,  and  yet  the  disease  raging  on — 
that  is  the  experience  of  not  a  few.  There  comes  a  time  when  there 
is  nothing  more  that  can  be  done.  There  comes  a  time  when  all 
thought  of  enterprise,  of  skill,  of  knowledge,  is  ended.  And  at  that 
point,  if  one  but  knev/  it,  there  is  a  beam  of  light  thrown  down  upon 
every  true  Christian  heart,  through  which  he  may  rise  to  God  and 
feel  that  both  he  and  the  child  may  be  left  in  the  arms  of  a  living 
Saviour.  He  that  laid  his  hand  upon  children's  heads,  and  took 
them  up  in  his  arms  and  blessed  them  with  caresses,  is  not  indiffer- 
ent when  any  little  child  lies  sick  in  our  lap  or  in  the  nursery ;  and 
if  our  children  linger,  and  we  know  not  whether  they  are  going  to 
die  or  live,  instead  of  giving  way  to  tormenting  fears,  and  becoming 
every  day  more  and  more  burdened  with  anxiety,  we  should  have 
faith,  trust,  quiet.     We  should  icait  iqyon  God. 

Perhaps  it  is  your  friend  far  away  that  is  sick.  Then  comes  th( 
grinding  anguish  of  uncertainty.  Uncertainties  are  the  torment 
of  the  world.  Oscillation  between  hope  and  fear,  especially  in  those 
who  are  imaginative,  creates  an  intensity  of  dread  by  embellishing 
every  side  of  possible  mischief  Eeal  troubles  may  strike  us  down, 
but  oscillation  and  uncertainty  torment  us  without  striking  us 
doAvn. 

Many  a  mother,  on  the  morning  after  some  reported  great  battle 
dreaded  to  read  the  account,  but,  drawn  by  the  fascination,  read, 
and  read,  and  at  last  discovered  that  her  boy  Avas  among  the 
Avounded.  She  Avas  far  from  him.  She  did  not  CA'en  knoAV  to  Avhat 
hospital  they  had  carried  him.  She  had  no  messenger  to  tell  her 
from  day  to  day  Avhether  he  throve  or  sank.  Alone,  up  under  the 
edge  of  the  mountain,  Avithout  resources,  a  mother's  heart  Avove  sad 
fancies.  Tell  me  about  people's  sufiering  Avounds !  it  was  the 
wounded  in  heart  that  suffered  in  that  great  conflict.  It  Avas  the 
buried  grief,  the  unspoken  suffering,  the  silent  tear,  that  God  beheld. 


WAITING  UPON  GOB.  425 

And  yet,  wherefore?  Was  not  the  child  under' the  same  providence 
which  nourished  the  mother  ?  and  were  not  the  promises  of  God  to 
her  enough  for  such  an  hour  as  this  ?  Could  she  not  give  up  tliat 
child  to  God,  and  say,  "  To  Ilim  who  made  and  controls  the  earth 
to  Him  in  whose  hand  are  all  the  elements  of  the  world,  I  give  my 
boy,  and  I  will  wait  on  God"  ? 

Or,  Avorse  than  that,  where  the  sickness  and  the  wound  are  not 
of  the  body,  where  they  are  of  the  soul,  and  where  the  child  is  out- 
cast and  vagabond,  a]id  Avanders  up  and  down  the  world,  no  one 
knows  where — the  child  of  many  prayers,  the  child  of  much  instruc- 
tion, and  the  child  who  is  dearer,  perhaps,  than  any  other,  because 
the  parent  loves  most  that  child  which  needs  parental  love  most — 
where  such  are  tlie  circumstances,  there  is  opportunity  for  waiting 
upon  God.  "What  are  the  terrible  experiences  of  many  parents 
who  never  hear  the  wind  blowing  around  about  their  houses  that 
they  do  not  say,  "  0  God,  where  is  my  child  ?"  who  never  see  the 
-balmy  and  serene  perfectness  of  the  Sabbath  morning  breaking  over 
the  hills,  that  it  does  not  bring  to  them  the  thought,  "  Where  is  my 
child  ?  Is  he  dead  ?  Is  he  encompassed  and  whirled  round  by  evil 
men  in  temptation  and  wickedness  ?  0  God,  Avhere  is  my  child  ?" 
This  is  a  bereavement  which  is  worse  than  death.  This  is  a  trial 
which  only  they  can  understand  who  have  had  the  experience  of  it. 
And  yet,  even  here  is  there  not  a  faith  that  can  trust  in  God  ?  May 
not  He  who  gave  us  the  parable  of  the  prodigal  son,  and  showed  in 
that  matchless  scene  by  the  feelings  of  the  father  what  are  God's 
feelings  toward  the  wandering — may  not  He  receive  this  trust  ? 
May  not  we  find  rest  in  the  Lord  ? 

Do  you  say,  "  This  is  easy  for  the  fortunate,  but  impossible  for 
those  who  are  actual  sufferers"  ?  I  do  not  say  that  we  can  assume 
these  graces  and  virtues  in  their  full  potency  all  at  once :  I  say 
that  these  are  stages  of  Christian  manhood  which  are  to  be  passed 
through  like  the  stages  of  every  other  form  of  higher  culture.  But 
I  say,  also,  that  every  man  who  suffers  should  learn,  in  his  suffering,  to 
lean  on  the  Lord,  and  rest  in  quiet.  This  is  possible,  though  per- 
haps it  cannot  be  attained  to-day  nor  to-morroAv. 

A  fair-Aveather  trust  is  of  very  little  use.  It  is  better  than  noth- 
ing, but  that  is  all.  A  religion  Avhich  cheers  you  in  prosperity  is 
certainly  better  than  no  religion  ;  and  faith  in  God  Avhile  the  sky  is 
blue  is  better  than  no  faith;  but,  after  all,  taking  men  as  they  are, 
the  religion  Avhich  they  need  is  a  religion  Avhich  is  brought  into  play 
more  in  tne  day  of  trial  than  in  the  day  of  prosperity.  What 
matters  it  Avhat  is  the  texture  of  your  raiment  in  August  ?     It 


426  WAITING  UPON  GOB. 

is  January  that  needs  thick  raiment.  What  matters  it  what  your 
experiences  are  in  prosperity  ?  *  It  is  adversity  that  is  to  test  the 
nature  of  your  experiences.  An  anclior  is  not  bad  when  it  lies  upon 
tlie  deck ;  it  is  convenient  when  we  use  it  in  a  tranquil  harbor ;  but 
when  the  stars  are  hidden,  and  the  storm  is  on  the  deep,  and  you  are 
driving  in  upon  the  coast — then  it  is  salvation.  We  need  a  liope,  a 
faith,  which,  while  it  will  be  a  convenience  in  fair  weather,  will  be  our 
mainstay  on  foul  and  stormy  days.  How  many  Christians  there  are 
who  have  a  hope  which  lasts  only  until  they  need  to  use  it !  How 
many  persons  there  are  who  are  able  to  sustain  sorrow  until  sorrow 
comes  upon  them  !  How  many  there  are  who  trust  in  God  until 
they  have  occasion  to  trust  in  him  ! 

Do  you  recollect  the  scene  in  Don  Quixote  in  which  the  im- 
mortal knight  put  upon  himself  a  helmet  made  of  pasteboard  ?  That 
helmet  being  smitten  and  pierced  by  a  sword,  he  sewed  it  up  again? 
and  would  not  part  with  it,  but  in  his  insanity  wore  it,  and  felt  that 
he  had  an  all-sufficient  helmet  on  his  head.  Are  there  not  many 
Don  Quixotes  among  men,  who  put  on  armor  that  looks  very  well 
till  some  sword  or  spear  is  thrust  into  it,  but  which  then  is  found  to 
be  like  the  pasteboard  helmet  that  went  to  pieces  the  moment  it  was 
touched  ?  If  we  are  to  have  a  piety  that  shall  sustain  us  in  the 
flood  and  in  the  fire  ;  if  we  are  to  have  a  faith  that  shall  be  an  all- 
sufficient  armor  by  day  and  by  night,  the  year  round,  and  from  year 
to  year,  we  must  have  one  that  is  made  up  of  something  better  than 
mere  pasteboard  instruction  or  a  paper  belief 

In  our  personal  religious  experience  there  is  a  development  of 
this  true  spiritual  life  required.  There  is  a  necessity,  in  many  cases 
of  men's  falling  back  upon  this  same  trust  in  God  and  waiting  upon 
him.  We  are  commanded  to  work  out  our  oicn  salvation,  as  if  we 
were  quarrying  stone  to  build  a  house  withal ;  as  if  we  were  hewing 
out  timber  in  the  woods  with  which  to  build  a  ship  for  a  voyage. 
We  are  perpetually  brought  into  circumstances  where  we  long  for 
Christian  excellence.  We  long  to  be  aljlc  to  govern  our  tempers  ; 
to  deepen  our  disinterested  kindness  ;  to  restrain  the  animal  in- 
stincts which  are  so  strong  in  us  ;  to  correct  the  stinginess  or  sel- 
fishness that  makes  us  like  bark-bound  trees  ;  and  we  strive  to  do 
these  things;  yet  in  hours  of  uuwatchfulncss,  ia  a  moment,  the 
labor  of  months  is  apparently  scattered. 

Under  such  circumstances  men  grow  discouraged.  They  feel' 
that  it  is  scarcely  worth  their  while  to  attempt  to  hew  into  form 
a  thing  so  ungainly  as  their  disposition,  or  to  bring  into  subjection 
so  wild  and  headstrong  a  thing  as  their  passions.     They  maJvo 


WAITING  UFON  GOD.  427 

so  little  progress  in  these  directions,  that  to  change  constitutional 
tendencies  seems  to  them  absolutely  impossible.  Yet,  when  men 
have  done  all  they  can,  Avith  vigilance,  with  discretion,  and  with 
patience,  it  is  for  them  also  to  rest  in  God. 

Is  God  patient  and  helpful  toward  us  when  it  is  our  outward 
circumstances,  our  bodily  needs  ?  and  shall  he  not  be  much  more  so 
when  it  is  our  inward  and  spiritual  needs  ?  Because  sin  is  odious  in 
the  sight  of  men,  we  are  apt  to  think  it  is  odious  in  the  sight  of 
God  in  the  same  way.  Men's  thoughts  of  each  other's  sinfulness  is 
oftentimes  mingled  with  revengeful  feelings.  But  God's  thought  of 
our  sinfulness  is  like  a  mother's  thought  of  the  sinfulness  of  her  dear 
beloved  child.  She  hates  the  sin,  but  loves  the  cliild,  and  gives  her- 
self for  the  child,  that  she  may  cleanse  out  the  sin.  When  God  sees 
in  us  the  sin  of  pride,  or  the  sin  of  selfishness,  running  strong  and 
deep,  he  does  not  despise  us.  He  looks  upon  that  which  is  evil  in  us 
as  we  look  upon  the  warts  on  the  rugged  oak.  He  looks  upon  it  as 
a  development  which  comes  from  supereminent  temptations  or  con- 
stitutional weaknesses,  and  so  has  compassion  upon  us. 

"  Like  as  a  father  pitieth  Lis  cliildren,  so  the  Lord  pitieth  them  that  fear 
him.    For  he  knoweth  our  frame;  he  remembereth  that  we  are  dust." 

There  is  no  other  being  that  pities  transgression  so  much  as  that 
God  who  punishes  transgression,  and  who  has  fixed  in  natural  law 
a  penalty  for  it,  and  Avho  "  will  by  no  means  clear  the  guilty," 
— but  who  has  compassion  upon  those  who  are  out  of  the  way, 
and  gives  himself  that  he  may  heal  them  of  their  wrong-doings, 
and  recover  them  from  their  backslidings.  God's  heart  is  out  toward 
all  those  who  are  full  of  faults,  who  are  full  of  sins,  yea  and,  I  think, 
Avho  are  full  of  crimes.  Over  every  jail  tliere  is  a  tenderer  Spirit 
brooding  than  ever  passes  in  or  out  through  the  door.  Send  to  the 
hospital  where  vice  has  taken  final  refuge  the  kindest  nurse  you 
can,  send  the  largest-hearted  pliilanthropist  you  can,  send  what 
you  please,  there  is  still  in  the  air  above,  silently  brooding  over  the 
miscreants  whose  last  hours  of  shame  and  sorrow  are  ending,  a  sweet 
and  tender  Spirit  that  outshines  all  that  the  human  heart  can  do  or 
feel  or  know. 

He  who  gave  himself  for  men  never  forgets  them.  The  poorest, 
the  wickedest,  the  most  desperate,  are  still  under  his  eye,  and 
are  cared  for  by  him.  God  pities  those  who  are  weighed  down  with 
their  crimes,  and  those  who  are  struck  through  with  vices  or  trans- 
gressions. They  may,  if  they  but  know  their  privilege,  look  up,  and 
wait  upon  God,  even  in  the  last  moment,  pleading  that  he  will 
care  for  them. 

I  need  not  press  this  subject  further,  my  brethren.    Who  of  us 


428  WAITING  UPON  GOD. 

is  there  tliat  has  not  had  occasion,  or  that  has  not  occasion  now,  or 
that  may  not  ere  long  have  occasion,  to  rely  upon  God,  and  trust  in 
Him,  rather  than  upon  himself  ?  Who  can  foresee  what  a  day  shall 
bring  forth  ?  Who  can  tell  what  plunges  he  may  make  before 
a  month  has  passed  ?  Who  can  tell  what  revolutions  may  take 
place  in  his  affairs  ?  Who  can  assure  you  that  your  household  shall 
be  unscattered  ?  Who  can  assure  you  that  you  shall  be  shielded 
from  the  storm  that  founders  many  and  many  a  brave  shijD  on  the 
sea  of  life  ?  We  have  no  guarantee.  God's  providence  is  over  us  all, 
and  watching  us  all ;  but  the  secrets  of  that  providence  are  unre- 
vealed.  One  thing  is  made  known  to  us,  however — namely,  that  God 
is  our  Father,  that  he  maintains  a  government  of  love,  and  that  it 
is  our  privilege  to  look  up  in  every  emergency,  and  say, "  Thou,  God, 
seest  me.  Thou,  God,  lovest  me.  I  cast  my  care  upon  thee.  I  put 
my  burdens  on  the  Lord.  I  will  rest  in  God,  and  v/ait  patiently  for 
him." 


WAITING  UPON  GOD.  429 

PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

Our  gracious  God,  we  thank  thee  that  thou  art  from  year  to  year  making 
it  easy  and  easier  for  us  to  approach  thee.  The  way  of  prayer  is  familiar. 
By  trouble  we  have  been  driven  as  by  strong  winds  to  thee,  the  Harbor  of 
rest.  We  have  been  drawn  to  thee  even  as  the  summer  draws  us  forth  to 
all  its  bounty.  Thou  hast  manifested  thyself  to  us  in  thy  wisdom  and  good- 
ness; and  our  hearts  have  been  cheered  in  the  thought  of  thine  administra- 
tion. We  are  glad  that  it  is  not  selfishness  nor  caprice  that  rules ;  that 
wiidom  sheathed  in  goodness  is  forever  bearing  sway ;  that  power  is  in  thy 
hand  an  instrument  of  all  good;  and  that  thou  art  governing  through  the 
ages  for  good  to  those  who  belong  to  thee.  We  rejoice  that  this  is  the 
genluj  of  thine  administration,  and  that  this  shall  forever  and  forever  be 
tlie  glory  of  thy  name,  and  the  gladness  of  thy  people.  Though  thou  dost 
work  mysteriously ;  though  we  cannot  follow  all  thy  footsteps,  nor  know  all 
thy  methods,  we  know  enough  to  draw  our  hearts  toward  thee  in  gladness 
and  in  trust.  And  we  desire  to  learn  the  lesson  of  resting  in  thee  for  knowl- 
edge of  all  that  is  now  obscure,  the  beginnings  of  which  we  discern,  but  the 
ends  of  which  we  cannot  diseatangle.  We  desire  to  rest  in  thee  with  the 
certainty  that  at  last  justice  will  be  made  apparent  in  things  seemingly  de- 
void of  goodness,  and  that  thou  wilt  make  thine  administration  appear  high 
over  all,  exceeding  glorious,  and  forever  admirable.  We  beseech  of  thee 
that  we  may  walk  in  this  comfortable  faith,  and  that  in  our  daily  affairs  we 
may  have  suoh  confidence  in  thee  that  thy  presence  shall  be  to  us  as  a 
shadow  in  a  weary  land,  and  a  stay  and  a  staff  under  burdens  and  troubles. 
May  we  rest  in  God,  and  find  there  the  comlort  of  this  perfect  faith. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  that  those  in  thy  presence,  this  morning, 
who  have  drawn  near  to  thee  for  holp,  may  be  entertained  as  out  of  royal 
abundance.  Grant  that  those  who  are  discouraged  may  find  cordial  in  thy 
love.  May  there  rise  up  in  their  souls  such  thoughts  of  God's  provident  care 
over»the  lowest  and  most  degi-aded  as  shall  cheer  and  comfort  them  while 
they  are  fulfilling  the  remaining  duties  of  life.  May  those  who  are  in  pov- 
erty, and  are  striving  against  its  evils,  have  often  before  them  the  eternal 
riches  which  they  shall  inherit^-that  rest  which  remaineth  for  the  people  of 
God,  in  the  Father's  house,  from  which  none  shall  be  exiled  who  have  trusted 
in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

We  pray,  O  Lord,  that  thou  wilt  draw  near  to  any  who  are  in  aflQiction. 
May  they  know  that  though  thou  hast  concealed  thyself  behind  the  dark- 
ness that  broods  over  tlieai,  within  it  is  the  warmth  and  flame  of  love.  Say 
to  them  that  thou  dost  not  afflict  willingly  nor  grieve  the  childi'en  of  men. 
And  may  they  be  patient  beneath  their  trials. 

Wilt  t'lou  heir  the  prayers  of  those  who  plead  for  themselves,  or  for 
those  who  are  dearer  to  them  than  themselves.  May  they  never  give  over. 
May  they  pray  and  not  faint. 

We  pray  tliat  thou  wilt  grant  to  all  those  who  stand  in  the  perplexities 
of  daily  life,  in  the  household,  or  in  the  world's  affairs,  that  strength  of  God 
which  shall  enable  them  to  discern  continually  the  way  of  duty,  and  by 
which  they  shall  be  able  to  walk  erect  therein. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  take  aw  ly  from  those  who  are  perplexed  with 
cares,  the  stiag  of  care.  And  may  those  upon  whom  thou  hast  laid  weighty 
affiiirs  of  this  world  not  be  thou-ihfcless  of  the  greater  interests  which  lie  in 
the  world  beyond.  And  to  those  AVhom  thou  hast  entrusted  with  power 
wilt  thou  grant  deliverance  from  those  temptations  which  betide  the  pos- 
session of  power.  May  they  have  present  with  them  evermore  the  vision 
of  life  and  of  death,  and  of  the  life  to  come.    And  may  they  have  that 


430  WAITING  UPON  GOD. 

golden  reed  of  the  sanctuary  put  into  the'r  harjds  by  wluch  to  measure  with 
a  heavenly  estimate  all  the  things  which  they  hold  on  earth. 

May  the  young  in  our  midst  grow  up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of 
the  Lord.  Bless  the  parents  who  attempt  to  teach  their  children  the 
things  which  are  honorable,  and  ju3t,  and  pure,  and  true,  and  manly. 

We  pray  for  all  that  are  in  our  schools  as  learners.  Bless,  also,  those 
who  are  instructors  in  them.  Crown  the  labor  of  thy  servants,  we  beseech 
of  thee,  with  the  richest  blessing  of  God.  As  in  the  past,  so  in  time  to  come, 
wilt  thou  abide  with  them.  May  grace,  mercy,  and  peace,  be  multiplied 
to  them. 

We  pray,  O  Lord,  that  to-day  thou  wilt  raise  up  friends  for  the  friend- 
less. In  this  inclement  season,  when  there  is  so  much  suffering,  may  there 
be  those  who  shall  seek  for  the  needy.  May  those  who,  having  means, 
succor  those  who  are  in  want,  become  rich  by  that  which  they  give  away 
of  their  treasure. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt  bless  all  the  churches  of  this  city,  and  of  the 
great  city  near  us.  Unite  thy  servants  more  and  more.  May  they,  by  the 
things  in  which  they  differ,  no  longer  angrily  vex  each  other.  May  they 
rather  be  drawn  together  by  the  things  in  which  they  agree.  May  the  peace 
of  God  rest  upon  them,  and  may  the  power  of  God  overshadow  them. 

May  all  the  churches  be  upheld  by  thy  hand.  May  the  Gospel  be  given 
to  thy  people  in  the  wilderness.  And  grant  that  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus 
may  be  preached  in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth. 

Bless  those,  to-day,  who  are  sitting  in  the  midst  of  darkness  in  heathen 
lands.  Be  with  those  who  are  preaching  Christ  to  the  ignorant  every  where. 
May  they  labor,  and  may  they  behold  the  seed  they  sow  springing  up  speed- 
ily;  or,  if  it  is  not  inaccardance  with  thy  will  that  they  should  see  it  spring- 
ing up,  may  they  not  be  discouraged,  but  labor  manfully  to  the  end, 
knowing  that  great  will  be  their  reward  in  heaven. 

We  pray  that  truth  may  prevail  in  our  own  land ;  that  intelligence  may 
drive  ignorance  away ;  that  the  weak  may  become  strong  ;  that  the  strong 
may  be  humane;  and  that  all  things  may  honor  thee.  From  the  rising  of 
the  sun  to  the  going  down  of  the  same,  may  thy  name  be  blessed  in  all  the 
earth. 

And  to  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Spirit  shall  be  praise  evermore. 
Aviien. 


XXIII. 

Do  THE  Scriptures  Forbid  Women 
TO  Preach? 


ff 


DO  THE  SCRIPTURES  EORBID  A¥OMEN 
TO  PREACH  ? 


"  Let  your  women  keep  silence  in  the  churches ;  for  it  is  not  permitted 
unto  them  to  speak ;  but  they  are  commanded  to  be  under  obedience,  as 
also  saith  the  law.  And  if  they  will  learn  anything,  let  them  ask  their  hus- 
bands at  home;  for  it  is  a  shanaefor  women  to  speak  in  the  church." — I. 
C0B.XIV.,  34,  35. 


There  is  a  passage  in  the  1st  of  Timothy  (11.  11,  12)  which  is 
nearly  equivalent  to  this  : 

*'  Let  the  woman  learn  in  silence  with  all  subjection;  but  I  suffer  not  a 
woman  to  teach,  nor  to  usurp  authority  over  the  man,  but  to  be  iu 
Bilence." 

The  recent  events  which  have  taken  place  in  this  city  have 
been  of  profound  interest  to  the  members  of  the  communion  in 
which  they  took  place,  not  only,  but  they  have,  in  connection  with 
a  long  train  of  tendencies  developed  in  late  years,  arrested  the 
attention  and  interested  the  thoughts  of  the  Avhole  community.  A 
woman  who  was  a  regular  preacher  in  a  Christian  sect  was  asked 
to  preach  in  a  Presbyterian  pulpit  in  this  city,  and  complied  with 
the  request.  Her  jBtness  for  that  service  was  unquestioned.  She 
had  long  spoken  in  churches ;  and  the  seal  of  divine  favor  had  fol- 
lowed this  apparent  infraction  of  the  command  of  the  apostle  Paul; 
for  edification  had  followed,  and  that  was  the  sign  which  Peter  said 
was  to  authenticate  the  various  means  which  should  fall  out  in  the 
newer  times  of  the  Gospel.  For  permitting  a  woman  preacher  to 
occupy  his  pulpit,  an  esteemed  and  honored  pastor*  was  brought 
before  a  special  meeting  of  his  Presbytery,  and,  out  of  tenderness  to 
him,  and  out  of  regard  for  his  long  and  admirable  service  in  the 
church,  his  conduct  was  passed  by  without  rebuke ;  but  the  churches 
were  substantially  enjoined  not  to  do  so  any  more,  but  to  take  heed 
to  the  past  declarations  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian 
♦  Rev.  Theo.  L.  Cuyler,  D.  D. 

Sunday  Evening,  Feb.ll,  1872.     Lesson :  1  Sam.  II.  1-11.     Hymns,  (Plymouth  Col. 
lecUon}  Nos.  137,  306,  1294. 


484  BO  THE  SCRIPTUEE8  FORBID 

Churcli  on  this  matter,  which  forbade  women  to  exercise  their  gifts 
as  public  teachers. 

The  simple  question,  then,  before  us,  is  this  :  Whether  in  the 
New  Testament  women  are  forbidden  to  teach  and  to  preach  in 
public  assemblies.  It  is  not  a  question  whether  the  Bible  ought  to 
have  permitted  them  to  do  it.  It  is  not  the  question  which  I  shall 
discuss  to-night,  whether  they  are  qualified  for  it.  Certainly  it  is 
not  the  question  as  to  their  more  extended  capabilities  and  rights 
and  permissions  in  the  future.  I  propose,  on  this  Lord's  day, 
to  argue  what  are  the  rights  and  duties  or  limitations  laid  down  in 
the  Word  of  God  on  the  subject  of  women's  teaching  and  preaching 
publicly. 

Are  those  words  of  Paul,  which  I  have  read,  ©f  universal  appli- 
cation in  our  time  and  everywhei'e  ?     And  are  they  final  ? 

There  ai'e  thi*ee  views  of  this  matter.  First,  there  are  those  who 
regard  this  utterance  as  official  and  conclusive,  and  who  therefore 
forbid  women  to  speak,  no  matter  how  gifted  they  are.  They  accept 
the  Word  of  God  as  the  rule  of  faith  and  practice  ;  and  they  accept 
this  utterance  as  meant  to  cover  the  whole  future,  and  to  determine 
the  condition  of  women  generally ;  and  they  comply  with  it.  How- 
ever much  we  may  differ  from  them  in  ojiiuion,  we  honor  their 
consistency. 

Secondly,  there  are  those  who  regard  this  testimony  as  explicit, 
covering  the  whole  question  in  all  time,  but  who  do  not  believe  in 
the  authority  of  the  apostle  to  settle  the  question.  They  say  simply 
this  :  "  Paul  forbade  them,  but  he  had  no  business  to."  This  is  an 
easy  deliverance  so  far  as  they  are  concerned. 

Then,  thirdly,  there  are  those  Avho  admit  the  binding  authority 
of  Scripture  upon  faith  and  practice  when  its  meaning  is  fairly  and 
finally  interpreted,  but  who  regard  this  command  as  local,,  national^/  ^ 
and  transient.  They  hold,  as  much  as  the  first,  to  the  authority  of 
sacred  Scripture  ;  but  they  difl:er  from  them,  by  supposing  that  this 
is  one  of  the  transient  commands  Avhich  Avas  enforced  only  in  a  par- 
ticular place,  and  for  a  particular  reason,  and  at  a  particular  time  ; 
and  that  it  is  not  the  utterance  of  Christianity  ;  that  it  is  not  the 
final  word  spoken  on  this  subject.  I  am  of  the  number  of  those  who 
hold  this  view. 

1.  It  was  not  the  design  of  Christianity  to  determine  manners 
and  customs,  nor  to  determine  the  forms  of  civil  government,  nor      ., 
to  determine  the  shapes  and  peculiai'ities  of  religious  ordinance  or  /^Aw 
ing^tution,  nor  to  inark  out  the  whole  future  economy  of  humrai   Jv^/ 
society.     It  did  not  undertake  to   build  by  the  external  at  all.  ] 


FCJf^iV  TO  PBEACE?  435 

ClirlsUanity  aimetl  tit  a  spiritual  development  of  man  by  bringing 
him  into  direct  relations  with  God.  Its  aim  was  a  new  creature  in 
Christ  Jesus  ;  a  noble  manhood  ;  assemblies  and  communities  made 
up  of  men  of  a  larger  pattern,  and  of  endowments  supererainent  and 
supreme  over  any  that  had  ever  been  known  before.  To  this  cor- 
rected and  inspired  manhood  was  left  the  utmost  liberty  in  respect  , 
to  external  things.  It  Avas  left  free  to  determine  all  economies  in 
the  church,  in  the  school,  in  the  family^,  and  in  the  state,  according 
to  the  mature  experiences  of  good  men  from  age  to  age. 

There  can  be  no  greater  imposition  attempted  upon  the  just  sense 
of  common  men  than  to  affirm  that  there  is  in  the  New  Testament, 
either  in  the  Gospels  or  the  Epistles,  a  pattern  of  any  external  part '/ 
of  the  church,  or  of  the  state  in  which  we  live,  or  of  the  domestic 
economy  under  which  we  are  reared.  All  thess  things  are  foreign 
to  the  spirit  and  genius  of  Christianity.  They  have  been  superim- 
posed upon  it,  built  upon  it,  by  a  later  spirit — a  mongrel  and  not  a 
Christian  spirit — a  spirit  that  is  semi-heathen,  and  altogether 
human.  Whatever  relates  to  the  interior  purity  of  man  ;  whatever 
belongs  to  universal  morality  ;  whatever  is  neccss,ij-y  to  man  every-  "> 
where,  in  all  ages  and  under  every  condition — that  was  determined 
and  fixed  in  Christianity.  It  was  not  left  to  take  care  of  itself.  The 
informing  Spirit,  the  Spirit  of  life,  organizes  all  the  necessary  instru- 
ments of  life. 

This  ^iew  is  corroborated  by  the  whole  testimony  of  history. 
The  modern  church  is  totally  difierent  from  the  assemblies  of  the 
first  Christians.  There  was  no  Christian  church  outside  of  the 
Jewish,  until  long  after  the  death  of  all  the  apostles.  There  was 
none  in  Christ's  life ;  he  took  no  disciples  out  of  the  Jewish 
church.  There  was  none  in  the  apostles'  time ;  thty  took  none 
out  of  the  Jewish  church.  They  themselves  were  regular  orthodox  /^ 
members,  attending  tlie  Jewish  church  as  long  as  they  lived.  And 
Avhen  Paul,  some  twenty  years  after  his  pastorate  began  in  Jerusalem, 
was  suspected  of  having  gone  outside  of  the  limits  of  that  church,  '^ 
he,  in  order  to  prove  that  it  was  prejudice,  and  that  he  was  orthodox, 
went  into  the  temple  and  performed  sacrificial  ofierings  according  to 
the  manner  of  the  Jews. 

The  civil  state  has  been  revolutionized  since  the  time  of  Christ. 
The  fomily  has  changed.  Our  household  is  not  a  transcript  of  the 
Jewish  household.  Certainly  it  is  not  a  transcript  of  the  Roman 
household.  The  domestic  organization  does  not  stand  on  civil  ? 
foundations  as  it  did  in  the  time  of  Christ  and  the  apostles.  It  is 
changed.  There  is  no  one  element  of  organization  that  now  re- 
sembles tlie  organizations  of  two  thousand  years  ago  any  more  than 
species  resemble  species  unjder  the  same  genus. 


436  DO  TEE  8GBIF TUBES  FOBBID 

The  presumption  is  that  under  such  circumstancjs.  when  Chris- 
tianity was  leaving  everything  else  to  the  wisdom  and  experience  of 
after  times,  it  did  not  step  in  Avith  this  single  exception  and  fix  the 
position  of  woman,  and  determine  exactly  what  her  privileges  were 
beyond  which  there  should  be  no  exception,  and  shut  her  mouth, 
and  paralyze  her  tongue  forever  after. 

It  w^ill  be  found  the  only  instance  in  which  such  a  thing  as  this  has 
been  done  in  New  Testament  history — if  it  was  done.  It  will  be 
contrary  to  the  genius  of  Christianity  in  every  other  direction.  That 
left  the  whole  of  household  matters  to  be  fixed  outside  of  itself.  ^>  That 
left  the  Avhole  of  the  civil  affairs  of  the  world  to  be  manasred  outside 
of  itself ,  That  left  all  the  elements  of  human  society  to  flow  on  with- 
out its  control. .'  That  left  all  the  interests  of  the  age  and  time  to  be 
conducted  in  accordance  with  man's  judgment  and  experience.  T 
And  did  it  put  its  finger  on  this  one  solitary  exception,  and  erect 
that  into  a  monument  of  interference  and  exact  fixity?  Such  an 
absolute  and  universal  limitation  could  not  have  taken  place  with- 
out violence  to  the  Jewish  ideas.  For,  first,  woman,  among  the 
'  Hebrews,  Avas  far  more  nearly  equal  to  man  than  in  other  Oriental 
nations — certainly  than  among  the  Greeks.  And,  so  far  as  we  can 
discern,  with  some  peculiarities  of  costume  and  manner  woman 
among  the  Hebrews  was  more  nearly  what  woman  is  with  us  than 
among  any  other  ancient  nation.  She  was  not  in  such  a  sense  a 
servant  as  she  Avas  among  the  Greeks.  She  was  not  jealously 
veiled,  being  forbidden  to  uncover  her  face  in  public.  She  was  not 
excluded  from  public  service  and  public  function.  She  was  a  publio 
instructor  among_the^ews.  ^  <2Z  (f>  V  3  ^ 
y  Earliest,  we  find  Miriam,  sister  of  Moses  and  Aaron,  who,  when 
the  great  deliverance  befel  Israel,  was  the  one  who  led  in  the  song 
of  triumph ;  and  so  far  from  meeting  rebuke,  inspired  with 
religious  fervor  she  gave  utterance  to  the  nation's  joy.  Instead 
of  being  rebuked  for  stepping  out  of  the  sphere  of  woman,  her  song 
is  recorded,  and  has  been  sounding  down  for  four  thousand  years. 

Deborah  Avas  n^t  simply  a  prophetess — that  is,  a  teacher:  she 
was  a  judge  in  Israel — that  is,  a  ruler.  In  those  early  times, 
and  particularly  in  the  then  despised  and  broken-up  condition 
of  the  HebreAV  commonAvealth,  here  Avas  a  woman  of  great  influence, 
of  great  power,  Avho  rose  to  the  public  service;  and  she  ruled  her 
people.  A  kind  of  Joan  of  Arc  she  Avas.  Though  Barak  was  king, 
he  Avas  under  subjection  to  the  Egyptians  and  she  roused  him  up  to 
break  the  yoke,  and  achieve  a  triumph.  You  will  find  an  account 
of  this  in  the  fourth  chapter  of  Judges. 

I  read  in  the  opening  service  the  outpouring  of  Hannah  as  she 


WOMEN  TO  FBEAGHf  437 

stood  praying.     She  gave  utterance  to  that  song  which  is  recorded 

in  the  second  chapter  of  the  first  book  of  Samuel. 

Then  there  was  Huldah,  in  the  time  of  Jeremiah.     She  was  more 

than  simply  a  prophetess ;  for,  when  the  king  desired  to  consult 

about  things  of  great  moment  he  passed  by  Jeremiah,  and  went  to 

Huldah.     Helkiah  the  priest,  Ahikam,  and  others  that  the  king 

had  appointed,  went  to  Huldah,  as  we  might  say  that  Bro.  Cuyler 

went  to  this  woman  preacher,  and  communed  with  her ;  and  she 

said : 

"  Thus  saith  the  Lord  of  Israel,  Tell  ye  the  man  that  sent  you  to  tne, 
Thus  saith  the  Lord,  I  will  bring  evil  upon  this  place,  and  upon  the  inhabit- 
ants thereof,  even  all  the  curses  that  are  written  in  the  book  which  they 
have  read  before  the  king  of  Judah  ;  Because  they  have  forsaken  me,  and 
have  burned  incense  unto  other  gods,  that  they  might  provoke  me  to  anger 
with  all  the  works  of  their  hands ;  therefore  my  wrath  shall  be  poured  out 
upon  this  place,  and  shall  not  be  quenched.  And  as  for  the  king  of  Judah, 
who  sent  you  to  inquire  of  the  Lord,  so  shall  ye  say  unto  him.  Thus  saith  the 
Lord  of  Isiuel  concerning  the  words  which  thou  hast  heard ;  because  thine 
heart  was  tender,  and  thou  didst  humble  thyself  before  God,  when  thou 
heardest  his  words  against  this  place,  and  against  the  inhabitants  thereof 
and  humbledst  thyself  before  me,  and  didst  rend  thy  clothes,  and  weep  be- 
fore me ;  I  have  even  heard  thee  also,  saith  the  Lord.  Behold  I  will  gather 
thee  to  thy  fathers,  and  thou  shalt  be  gathered  to  thy  grave  in  peace,  neither 
shall  thine  eyes  see  all  the  evil  that  I  will  bring  upon  this  place,  and  upon 
the  inhabitants  of  the  same.    So  they  brought  the  king  word." 

It  seems  that  she  lived  in  the£ollege  in  Jerusalem,  that  she  was  ai?/  /J 

prophetess,  and  that  she  was  entrusted  with  the  instruction  of  the  ^ 

young  prophets  who  were  accustomed  in  those  times  to  undergo  a 

kind  of  theological  education. . 

So,  too,  in  the  very  time  of  Christ,  Anna^  the  prophetess,  stood 
in  the  temple  where  she  lived,  and  broke  forth  into  praise,  and  gave 
God  thanks  for  the  appearance  of  the  promised  Messiah  that  she 
believed  had  come. 

Tiius,  when  a  Jew  looked  back  upon  his  history,  while  he  rejoiced  ( 

at  the  glory  of  Solomon,  and  celebrated  the  achievements  of  David ;  L^ 
while  he  honored  the  magistracy  of  Samuel,  and  gloried  in  all  the     ^^ 
offices  of  Aaron  and  Moses ;  and  while  he  was  proud  of  the  memories 
of  Abraham,  he  included  in  the  same  category  the  names  of  the 
Miriams,  the  Deborahs,  and  the  Huldahs.     There  were  familiar  in- 
stances in  past  history  of  the  patriotic  glory  of  women  who  had 
stood  up  in  different  ages  to  hold  the  sceptre,  to  judge  Israel,  and  to 
teach,   and,  being  inspired  of  God,  to  pour  forth  prophecies  that J^ 
embraced  both  present  and  prospective  events. 
^         When,  therefore,  at  the  Pentecost,  Peter  gave  the  programme 
of  the  future,  did  he  reverse,  or  did  he  confirm,  this  national  pecu- 
liarity ?     Would  he  be  understood  by  those  who  listened  to  that 


438  DO  TEE  SCRIPTURES  FORBID 

memorable  speech  of  his  as  piitting  Avomen  to  silence  in  the  ch  iirches  ? 
Let  us  see.  They  were  charged  with  being  drunken.  When,  under 
the  influence  of  the  divine  Spirit,  inspiration  was  wrought  upon 
them,  men  not  understanding  what  it  was,  thought  that  they  must 
be  drunken  ;  but  Peter  said, 

"These  are  not  drunken,  as  ye  suppose,  seeing  it  is  but  the  third  hour 
\i  of  the  day  [nine  o'clock  in  the  morning],  but  this  is  that  which  was  spoken 
by  the  prophet  Joel :  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  the  last  days,  saith  God,  I 
will  pour  out  of  my  spirit  upon  all  flesh ;  and  your  sons  and  your  daughters 
shall  prophesy,  and  your  young  men  shall  see  visions,  and  your  old  men  shall 
dream  dreams ;  and  on  my  servants  and  on  my  hand-maidens,  I  will  pour 
out  in  those  days  of  my  Spirit;  and  they  shall  prophesy.*' 

Now,  to  propliesy,  in  its  original  and  highest  sense,  was  to  per- 
ceive beforehand,  to  foretell;  but  in^its  more  ordinary  sense,  it  was 
to  teach,  to  instruct.  Yon  will  observe  that  the  prophet  Joel 
declared,  as  quoted  by  Peter,  without  any  limitation  or  explanation, 
that  God  should  pour  out,  in  the  latter-day,  his  Spirit  upon  all  flesh, 
that  sons  and  daughters  should  prophesy,  and  that  on  servants  and 
on  handmaidens  should  be  poured  out  the  divine  Spirit. 

So  then,  not  only  were  the  Jews  accustomed  to  the  instruction  of 
women,  but  to  instruct  was  enjoined  on  women.  It  was  declared  that 
they  should  do  it.  Here  is  their  call,  and  here  is  their  authentic  charter. 
When  the  Spirit  of  God  rests  upon  them,  and  they  have  a  message 
to  give,  and  their  heart  burns  in  them,  if  you  undertake  to  set  up 
the  letter  of  Paul  around  about  them,  I  set  up  the  letter  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  which  says.  On  my  handmaidens  will  I  pour  out  my 
spirit ;  and  they  shall  prophesy. 

I  know  that  in  the  synagogue  it  was  forbidden  women  to  teach ; 
and  I  know  the  reason  why.     The  synagogical  service  was  not  one 
of  extemporary  efi'usion.     It  was  liturgical  and  expository.     It  con- 
sisted in  the  chanting  of  pslams,  and  what  not,  and  in  the  reading 
of  the  text  of  Scripture,  with,  such  ritualistic  exposition  as  had  been 
provided  by  the  Kabbis.     As  women  had  not  the  necessary  technical 
education,  they  were  not  admitted  to  the  performance  of  service  in  the 
synagogue;  but  outside  of  the  synagogue,  when  they  had  an  inspi-  ^^eiJQ 
ration  of  moral  feeling,  it  was  not  against  the  Hebrew  public  senti-     '(^f...^-^ 
ment,  but  eminently  in  accordance  with  it,  that  they  should  speak^ 
out — and  speak  in  meeting^  too. 

2.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  in  view  of  these  statements,  that  the 
limitations  of  speech  in  the  word  of  God  are  not  made  in  the  Gospels,  ^ 
which  are  the  gi'and  fountain  out  of  which  all  the  epistles  flow. 
There  is  nothing  in  the  Gospels  which,  by  the  least  implication, 
places  any  limits  to  the  position,  the  rights  or  the  duties  of  women. 
Nor  is  there  in  any  of  the  letters  of  the  apostles  to  Jewish  assemblies 


WOMEN  TO  PEE  ACE?  439 

of  Christians  anything  which  condemns  tliis  Jewish  custom.  Thero 
is  not  one  word  which  seems  designed  to  change  that  custom. 

3.  Only  to  Greek  churches  were  there  such  limitations  upon 
women's  rights  or  priviliges.  Only  in  the  letters  of  Paul  to  the 
Corinthians — to  the  people  in  fellowship  there — is  this  forbidding 
clause  found,  except  when  he  wrote  to  Timothy  in  regard,  esp_ecially, 
to  the  churches  of  Asia  Minor. ,  In  both  instances  the  proscriptions 
were  addressed,  not  to  Jewish  but  to  Grecian  assemblies  of  Christ- 
ians. Not  that  there  were  not  traces  of  Jews  among  them — there 
were ;  but  the  mass  were  essentially  Greek ;  the  customs  of  the  com- 
munity were  Greek. 

It  becomes  necessary,  now,  that  we  should  ask.  Why  was  it  that 
wlien  the  apostle  addressed  Jewish  assemblies  of  Christians  he  said 
nothing  about  women's  silence,  and  that  when  he  addressed  Greek 
assemblies  of  Christians  he  enjoined  it  ?  Let  us  look  at  the  condi- 
tion of  woman  among  the  Greeks.  It  was  degraded  to  an  extent 
that  we  can  scarcely  conceive  of.  The  highest  thought  of  woman- 
hood that  the  Greeks  had,  was  that  a  woman  should  remain  at  home 
in  seclusion,  the  absolute  and  literal  slave  of  her  husband;  that 
she  should  serve  him  and  his  household  ;  that  her  life  should  be  one 
of  simple  domesticity ;  that  she  should  not  be  known  beyond  the 
limited  sphere  of  the  family;  and  that  she  should  confine  her 
occupation  to  the  manufacture  of  embroidery,  the  preparation  of 
food,  and  the  direction  of  the  servants  or  slaves  of  the  household. 
Beyond  this  sphere  she  should  not  go  one  step.  And  I  speak  literally 
when  I  say  that  the  Greek  idea  of  woman's  virtue  was  that  she  should 
not  rise  above  the  level  of  domestic  knowledge  and  function.  She 
was  not  expected  even  to  go  to  the  door  to  meet  her  husband  when 
he  came  home,  lest  she  should  be  seen.  She  was  not  permitted  to  go 
into  the  street  unless  she  was  wrapped  and  veiled.  For  a  woman  in 
Greece  to  sit  with  unveiled  face  or  uncovered  head  in  a  public  place, 
was  to  destroy  her  reputation  for  virtue.  For  a  woman  there  to  do 
what  is  done  by  women  in  modern  civilized  nations;  for  a  woman  to 
develop  in  herself  that  which  now  the  poorest  man  in  the  community 
toils  with  the  utmost  self-denial  to  give  to  his  daughters ;  for  a  wo- 
man to  learn  poetry,  and  music,  and  art,  and  pliilosophy,  and  to  be 
known  to  possess  a  knowledge  of  these  things — this  was  to  stamp 
her,  in  the  eyes  of  all  men,  as  a  courtezan.  No  woman  in  Greece 
f:a:i  permitted  to  become  versed  in  any  of  those  things  which  we 
call  the  refinemcments  and  embellishments  of  education,  except  at 
the  price  of  her  reputation  for  virtue.  A  virtuous  woman  in  Greece 
was  an  ignorant  domestic  drudge.  An  enlightened  woman,  com- 
petent to  conversiition,  and  to  what  we  regard  the  higher  walks  of 


440         BO  TEE  8CEIPTUBB8  FORBID 

civilization,  was  understood,  universally,  to  be  accessible  as  a  cour- 
tezan. 

About  this  there  is  no  mistake.  The  proofs  of  it  are  overwhelm- 
ing. The  illustrations  of  it  one  might  sj)end  the  whole  night  in 
detailing  to  you.     I  merely  rhake  the  general  statement. 

Such  being  the  position  of  women,  such  being  the  popular 
feeling  and  the  popular  custom  in  regard  to  them,  what  would 
have  been  the  effect,  if,  when  the  Christian  assemblies  had  been 
gathered  together,  and  the  heathen  Greeks  had  been  around  about 
looking  in  upon  the  worship,  a  woman  had  risen  up  in  meeting,  and, 
with  open  face  and  uncovered  head,  had  begun  to  pour  out  her 
heart  ?  "  That  is  the  sort  of  worship  you  have,  is  it?"  the  Greek 
would  have  said.  "  That  is  Christianity,  is  it  ?  Why,  then,  the 
ohurch  is  nothing  but  a  vast  house  of  orgies ;  and  the  gospel  sets 
people  free  from  decency."  He  would  have  gone  home  saying,  "  I 
understand  your  new  religion.  It  teaches  our  wives  that  they  must 
forsake  their  virtue,  and  go  oat  into  public  exposure,  and  do  as  cour- 
tezans do."  Therefore  it  was  that  Paul  said,  substantially,  to  the 
Greek  Christians,  "  You  shall  not  violate  the  customs  of  your 
country.  You  shall  not  bring  into  discredit  the  religion  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  by  doing  that  which  can  be  intei-preted  but  in 
one  direction  by  every  man  who  sees  it.  I  forbid  your  women  to 
teach" — in  Greece.  Would  that  he  had  put  that  in!^'(I^  he  had 
only  known  how  stupid  people  were  going  to  be  in  our  day  he  would 
have  done  it ! ! .'  ■  ■ 

The  same  is  true  with  respect  to  the  injunction  which  he  left  in 
the  hands  of  Timothy. 

What,  then,  may  be  considered  a  fair  interpretation  of  this  ?  Is 
it  right  to  say  that  the  apostle  was  here  uttering  the  last  word  Avhich 
the  genius  of  Christianity  had  for  women  in  all  their  future  history, 
and  throughout  all  the  world  ?  Are  you  to  take  a  command  which 
was  specific  to  a  degraded  community,  and  which  had  a  peculiar  in- 
terpretation in  that  community,  and  in  not  another  province  on  the 
■  globe,  and  make  it  the  criterion  forjudging  of  woman's  position  and 
''>  instruction  in  every  nation  ?  Shall  this  be  done  where  Christia.iitf 
has  whelmed  such  degradation,  sinking  it  deeper  than  Pharoali  -was 
sunk  in  the  Eed  Sea,  and  where  Christianity  has  inspired  woman, 
and  raised  her  position,  and  she  has  become  a  poetess,  a  writer  of 
history,  and  is  walking  in  the  realms  of  literature,  even  affect- 
ing the  condition  of  the  whole  generation  ?  Shall  you  undertake  to 
put  that  manacle  which  belonged  to  the  apostate  degradation  of  tlie 
Greek  period  upon  the  limbs  of  an  enfranchised  womanhood  ?  I3 
that  the  way  to  interpret  the  record  of  Christiauity  ? 


WOMEN  TO  FBEACHf  441 

Ton  all  smiled  when  I  read  the  passage,  "  Let  your  women  keep 
silence  in  the  churches :"  why  do  not  you  laugh  now  ?  Is  that 
Cod's  message  to  the  Jews  and  to  the  race  ?  You  might  as  well  say 
that  the  command  of  the  physician  to  the  poor  leper  of  the  lazar- 
house,  directing  him  to  cleanse  his  scabs  and  sores,  and  telling  him 
just  what  lie  shall  do,  is  the  prescription  that  you  are  to  take  care  ^^^L^ 
of  your  children  by.  Are  hospitals  patterns  for  universal  hy-  ^.U 
giene  ? 

I  do  not  say  that  I  scorn  or  contemn  men  who  have  interpreted 
this  otherwise — "  The  times  of  this  ignorance  God  winked  at ;"  but  / 
hereafter,  if  a  man  with  such  facts  as  these  clearly  before  him,  shall 
so  change  this  injunction  as  to  make  it  the  utterance  of  Christianity, 
I  may  love  and  honor  him,  but  I  shall  marvel  at  that  providence 
which  often  makes  wise  men  so  foolish ! 

I  honor  brother  Cuyler  because  he  had  the  courage  to  ask  Miss 
Smiley  into  his  pulpit.  He  acted  along  the  very  meridian  line  of 
the  genius  of  Christianity.  And  when  he  was  called  to  account  for 
it,  I  would  that  he  had  stood  up  as  boldly  as  Peter  did  when  he  was 
arraigned  for  teaching  in  the  name  of  Christ,  and  said,  "  Whether 
it  be  right  in  the  sight  of  God  to  hearken  unto  you  more  than  unto 
God,  judge  ye."    However,  all  men  cannot  do  all  things. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  things  which  I  observe  in  the  casu- 
istry of  Christian  men,  is  tho^  facility  with  which  they  will  reason  i 
a  certain  way  on  all  matters  in  which  it  is  convenient  for  them  to 
reason  in  that  way,  and  the  stubbornness  and  tenacity  with  which 
they  will  refuse  to  reason  in  a  given  way  when  it  is  not  exactly  in 
the  line  of  their  convenience. 

For  instance,  we  are  all  commanded  to  "  honor  the  king."  Not 
the  command  in  regard  to  baptism  is  plainer  than  that  in  regard  to 
honoring  the  king.  But  do  you  honor  the  king?  Will  you  do  it? 
We  have  kicked  the  king  overboard.  Is  that  honoring  him  ?  Was 
not  the  alleged  duty  of  honoring  the  king  the  point  at  issue  in  all 
the  struggles  of  England  ?  How  did  old  Southey  thunder  out  of 
that  fortress  for  the  divine  right  of  kings !  How  did  he  lecture  and 
lampoon  men  for  the  heresy  of  having  betrayed  God's  word!  How 
he  laid  down  the  law  of  God,  as  so  many  letters  to  spell  out,  "  Honor 
the  king."  But  if  you  have  not  a  king,  how  can  you  fulfil  that  com- 
mand? It  is  not  convenient  or  agreeable  for  us  to  honor  the  kino- 
And  so  we  do  not  think  that  command  is  binding  upon  us ;  but 
there  are  men  Avho  do  find  it  convenient  or  agreeable  to  recognize  as 
binding  tlie  command,  "  Let  your  women  keep  silence  in  the 
churches."    They  do  not  have  any  trouble  in  dishonoring  a  king, 


442  DO  TEE  SCEIFTUEES  FOB£ID 

and  they  -would  figlit  as  bravely  as  you  or  I  would  to  keep  him  tff; 
and  yet  they  are  shocked  at  the  idea  of  a  woman's  speaking  in 
meeting. 

Let  us  look  at  this  passage  in  Timothy,  a  portion  of  whic  i  ] 
have  read  to  you  : 

"  I  will  therefore  that  men  pray  everywhere,  lifting  up  holy  hands,  with- 
out wrath  and  doubting.  In  like  manner,  also,  that  women  adorn  themselves 
in  modest  apjparel." 
,.         I  do  not  find  that  there  is  any  such  literal  construction  insisted 
O*^  1  upon  in  this  matter,  when  dresses  are  worn  too  short  at  the  top  and 
"^^  a  world  too  long  at  the  bottom ;  or  too  short  at  the  bottom  and  not 
■"^     long  enough  at  the  top.     Fiishion  rules;  and  no  person  has  any 
interpretation  to  offer  on  that  subject.     How  will  you  get  over  that  ? 

"  In  like  manner,  also,  that  women  adorn  themselves  in  modest  apparel, 
with  shame-facedness,  and  sobriety;  not  with  braided  hair — " 

(^  Oh,  ho  !  Here  is  another  piece  of  wickedness  that  the  church 
ought  to  sit  in  judgment  on  !  Women  should  be  called  to  account 
/or  braiding  their  hair  ! 

"  Not  with  braided  hair,  or  gold,  or  pearls,  or  costly  array." 
Where  are  your  literalists  ?     Where  are  the  persons  who  are  at- 
tired in  silk  and  satin  ?     Where  are  the  persons  Avhose  hands  are 
weighed  down  with  rings,  who  wear  jeweled  necklaces,  and  who  have  ^J'^i^^ 
all  manner  of  glowing  gems  on  their  cincture  ?     Where  are  the  men  '  " 
who  shall  bring  these  persons  to  judgment?     Where  is  the  Presby- 
tery which  shall  call  forth  these  culprits  and  see  that  they  are  duly 
censured  ?     Why  did  not  the  Presbytery  of  Brooklyn,  that  arraigned 
the  honored  and  beloved  pastor.  Doctor  Cuyler,  for  asking  a  wo- 
man to  speak  who  was  divinely  led  to  speak  and  whose  speaking 
had  been  blessed  of  God — why  did  they  not  call  on  this  good  brother 
to  bring  out  those  women  in  his  church  who  braid  their  hair,  and 
wear  diamonds,  aud  pearls,  and  rubies,  and  opals,  and  all  manner  of 
jewels  ?      "  But,"  say  people,    "  the  apostle  did  not  mean  that." 
Oh  no,  he  did  not  mean  what  you  do  not  want  to  have  him  mean  ja 
he  only  meant  what  you  do  want  to  have  him  mean  ! 

There  were  outrageous  vanities  in  the  time  of  the  apostle,  and  he- 
rebuked,  and  justly  rebuked,  those  persons  who  were  empty -pated, 
silly-headed,  and  who  stood  entirely  on  gewgaws,  and  the  various 
fashions ;  but  do  you  suppose  he  meant  that  it  was  wrong  for 
a  person  to  braid  the  hair,  or  to  wear  any  jewelry  ?  I  do  not.  J 
regard  it  as  a  stroke  at  the  fashion  of  those  churches  which  exicited 
at  that  time.  I,  too.  would  inveigh  against  extravagance,  i  do 
with  my  eye,  and  my  thoughts.  I  think  that  fashion  is  a  despotic 
tyrant.    When  once  a  person  has  drunk  this  sorceress'  cup,  they  have 


WOMEN  TO  PEE  ACE  7  443 

drunk  to  insanity;  and  nothing  can  prevent  it.  All  creation  could 
not  keep  an  ordinary  woman  from  following  the  fashion  to  a  greater 
or  less  extent.  And  against  extravagance,  against  excessive  addiction 
to  vanity  and  dress,  the  apostle  bore  witness.  But  he  did  not  bear 
witness  against  taste  or  love  of  beauty.  He  did  not  bear  Avitness 
against  personal  embellishments  where  they  were  compatible  with 
reason  and  purity  and  virtue.  Do  you  suppose  that  where  there  is 
an  inward  power  of  goodness,  persons  are  harmed  by  these  outward 
adornments  ?     I  do  not. 

The  same  is  true  in  respect  to  slavery,  as  it  is  in  respect  to 
to  monarchy.  The  whole  tenor  of  the  New  Testament  is  to  enjoin 
upon  men  the  appropriate  duties  of  the  station  in  which  they  are 
living,  that  station  to  be  determined  by  the  course  of  events. 

Not  long  ago  men  said  that  black  slavery  was  permissible. 
Because  it  was  not  reprehended  in  the  Word  of  God,  they  counte- 
nanced it.  But  even  when  men  were  arguing  in  favor  of  black 
slavery  they  were  never  heard  to  argue  in  favor  of  white  slavery. 
The  idea  of  a  white  man's  being  a  slave  never  entered  into  their 
head.  But  in  the  time  Avhen  these  words  were  written,  nearly  all 
slaves  were  white.  They  were  captives  gathered  from  Gaul  and  the 
Oriental  nations.  There  were  some  African  and  Ethiopian  slaves  ; 
but  the  great  bulk  of  the  slaves  of  the  Eoman  Empire  were  white 
men.  And  yet,  you  never  could  have  persuaded  a  man  in  our 
country  tlia.t  white  slavery  was  right.  This  is  another  instance 
going  to  show  that  interpreters  of  the  Bible  follow  closely  their 
own  wishes  and  prejudices. 

The  tendency  of  Christianity  is  not  to  put  men  in  the  posi- 
tions which  they  occupied  in  the  Grecian  nation.  On  the  contrary, 
the  effect  of  the  preaching  of  Christianity  and  its  silent  working  has 
been  to  produce  exactly  the  opposite  state  of  things  to  that  which 
existed  in  the  time  of  the  apostle.  In  other  words,  the  providence 
of  God  is  in  conflict  with  this  rigid  interpretation  of  the  Pauline 
language. 

Women  have  now  risen  out  of  degradation.  They  are  not  slaves 
of  men.  They  are  neither  literally  bought  and  sold,  nor  are  they  in 
civilized  countries,  to  any  such  degree  as  formerly,  subject  to  the 
arbitrary  Avill  or  despotism  of  men.  They  have  risen  to  partner- 
ship. The  man  and  the  woman  are  one.  The  theory  of  the  New 
Testament  on  this  subject,  is,  that  they  marry  into  each  other;  that 
they  are  not  to  be  considered  as  separate.  The  woman  carries  the 
husband  in  her  ;  and  the  husband  carries  the  wife  in  him.  They 
are  not  to  be  disjoined.  They  are  one  in  the  Lord.  They  are  inter- 
changeable.    If  you  consider  them  individually,  they  both  govern, 


444  DO  THE  SGBIPTUEE8  FOBBID 

and  they  both  obey,  in  the  spirit  of  true  love.  There  is  neither 
thine  nor  mine  with  them.  It  is  ours,  which  swallows  up  both 
thine  and  mine. 

"Woman  has  risen  out  of  the  household,  and  has  Oycomo  a 
teacher  in  the  world.  You  cannot  give  a  rigid  interpretation  to  the 
language  of  the  apostle,  and  apply  it  to  woman,  without  running 
against  the  whole  fruit  of  civilization  for  the  last  several  hundred 
years.  I  want  to  know  whether  now  a  woman  who  writes  books  is 
acting  in  the  spirit  of  Paul's  injunction  to  the  Greoian  church.  Is 
a  poetess,  who  is  singing  to  all  the  ages  that  shall  hear  her,  acting  in 
the  spirit  of  this  injunction  in  the  letter  of  Paul  to  the  Greek 
Church  ? 

Why,  Christianity  is  changing  the  age.  We  are  no  longer  bar- 
barians or  semi-barbarians.  Woman  herself  has  justly  enjoyed 
to  a  surprising  degree,  the  advantages  of  Christianity.  As  she  was 
in  a  condition  to  be  the  most  changed,  she  has  been  the  most 
benefited.  As  a  wife  and  mother  she  occupies  a  nobler  place.  In  a 
multitude  of  functions  she  has  the  prospect  of  a  richer  life  before 
her.  And  are  you  going  to  undertake  to  push  two  hundred  years' 
growth  of  the  oak  tree  back  into  the  acorn  from  which  it  sprang  ? 
Are  you  going  to  put  back  the  shadow  on  the  dial  ?  Are  you  going 
to  turn  the  tide  of  civilization  ?  Is  it  again  to  be  adopted,  in  our 
time,  as  a  rule,  that  a  woman  is  to  know  nothing  outside  of  her  own 
family  ?  Is  she  worse  or  better  for  ignorance  ?  She  who  is  in  sym- 
pathy with  all  that  concerns  husbands  and  fathers  and  sons  is  the 
most  fit  to  rear  her  own  sons. 

Woman,  by  the  providence  of  God,  by  the  stimulation  of 
Christianity,  and  by  the  natural  unfolding  of  human  affairs,  ia 
brought  to  be  again  a  prophetess — that  is,  a  teacher ;  and  the  careei 
is  not  stopped.  There  is  to  be  more  of  it,  rather  than  less.  That 
there  should  be  abberrations,  exaggerations,  mistaken  theories,  and 
instances  here  and  there  that  are  offensive  to  taste,  is  not  strange.  Is 
it  not  true  that  in  every  age  of  the  world  men  have  gone  forward 
toward  that  which  was  good  with  uncertain  step  ;  that  they  have 
crept  as  in  the  darkness  ?  And  is  it  strange  that  persons  do  not 
know  how  to  philosophize  at  once  upon  their  rights,  and  upon  the 
mistakes  that  are  incident  to  them  ?  These  mistakes  are  what  in 
children  are  called  growing  pains. 

It  is  perfectly  fair  to  apply  to  this  subject — the  speaking  of 
women  in  public  assemblies — the  argument  which  the  apostle  Peter 
himself,  in  the  eleventh  chapter  of  Acts,  applied  to  the  carrying  of 
the  Gospel  to  the  Gentiles — a  thing  which  at  that  time  was  con- 
sidered a  gross  heresy.    Peter,  you  know,  was,  by  a  vision,  sent  to  the 


W0MI<;N  to  PBEACHf  445 

Eoman  Centurion,  Cornelius,  who  was  waiting  for  instruction.     He 

preached  the  Gospel  to  him,  and  baptized  him,  and  received  him,  as 

it  were,  into  the  arms  of  Christianity,  and  went  back  to  the  other 

apostles,  and  told  them  what  he  had  done ;  and  they  Avere  aghast  at 

this  novelty.     And  Peter  argued  with  them,  and  said, 

"  As  I  began  to  speak,  the  Holy  Ghost  fell  on  them,  as  on  us  at  the  be- 
ginning. Then  rembered  I  the  word  of  the  Lord,  how  that  he  said,  John 
baptized  with  water;  but  ye  shall  be  baptized  with  the  Holy  Ghost. 
Forasmuch,  then,  as  God  gave  them  the  like  gift  as  he  did  unto  us  who 
believed  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  what  was  I  that  I  could  withstand  God? 
When  they  heard  these  things  they  held  their  peace,  and  glorified  God,  say- 
ing, Then  hath  God  also  to  the  Gentiles  granted  repentance  unto  life." 

They  could  hardly  believe  it;  but  they  yielded  up  the  argu- 
ment, and  admitted  that  the  Gentiles,  if  the  Holy  Ghost  had  fallen 
on  them,  were  to  be  saved. 

Now,  I  say  that  if,  in  the  providence  of  God,  women  are  called  to 
preach  ;  if  they  show  that  they  are  fitted  for  the  work  ;  if  mankind  ? 
are  called  to  hear  them  ;  if  their  discourse  is  accompanied  with  i 
power  from  on  high  ;  if  men  who  are  in  darkness  are  enlightened ; 
if  men  who  are  living  in  torpidity  are  inspired  with  a  new  desire  for 
a  holier  life,  and  they  reform ;  then  the  Holy  Ghost  bears  witness 
to  the  validity  of  the  ordination,  and  to  a  Avoman's  right  to 
speak. 

What  is  the  fact  ?  Is  there  another  denomination  in  which  the 
Christian  spirit  is  carried  to  a  higher  degree  than  among  the  Friends, 
as  they  call  themselves  ?  Can  there  be  found,  in  the  whole  galaxy 
of  Christian  men  and  Avomen,  from  the  time  of  Christ  and  the 
Marys  doAvn  to  our  day,  more  lovely  specimens  of  Christian  char- 
acter than  are  to  be  found  among  them  ?  And  yet,  from  the  first, 
women  have  been  authorized  preachers  among  the  Friends.  Miss 
Smiley  is  an  authorized  preacher  among  them.  She  finds  that  she 
has  the  ability  to  preach,  and  God  follows  her  preaching  with  the 
blessing  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  and  these  facts  are  accepted  by  her  de- 
nomination as  evidence  that  she  is  fitted  for  the  calling. 

In  Methodist  meetings,  all  over  the  United  States,  and  through- 
out the  world,  has  it  not  been  the  fact,  from  the  beginning,  that 
when  Avomen  were  moved  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  they  were  permitted 
to  bear  Avitness  to  their  experience,  and  to  exhort  ?  And  has  there 
not  been  abundant  fruit  groAving  out  of  this  liberty  ? 

Is  it  not  trae  that  in  the  Baptist^  Church,]  (particularly  in  the  Svi 
interior  and  jn  the  far  West,)  women  have  been  permitted  to  take  part   "^y^ 
ill  conference  meetings,  and  to.  minister  publicly  in  holy  things,  by 
sfpoech.     And  has  not  the  Holy  Ghost  borne  witness,  not  adverse  to 
liiLri  pcnnissoUjbut  in  favor  of  it?  Are  the  churches  in  which  this  has 


410  DO  TEE  SCEIPIUEE8  FOEBID 

occurred  now  taking  away  the  liberty  of  women  to  speak  in  religious 
assemblies  ?  Are  they  not,  rather,  becoming  more  convinced  tlian 
ever  that  it  is  in  accordance  with  the  mind  and  will  of  God  ?  And 
when  the  Spirit  itself  bears  witness,  in  fruit,  to  the  right  of  women 
to  speak,  who  are  we,  that  we  should  stand  up  and  resist  God,  on  no 
better  foundation,  and  Avith  no  better  argument,  than  the  local  com- 
mand made  to  a  degraded  Greek  community,  where  women  had 
been  so  wickedly  abused  that  it  was  necessary  to  refuse  to  allow 
them  to  take  that  part  in  the  ministration  of  the  Gospel  which  or- 
dinarily belonged  to  Hebrew  women  ? 

I  take  the  universal  truth  which  Paul  lays  down  in  Galatians' 
(III.  27,  28)  as  the  Christian  doctrine  of  conduct  in  the  future : 

"  For  as  many  of  you  as  have  been  baptized  into  Christ  have  put  on 
Christ.    There  is  neither  Jew  nor  Greek." 

Nationalities  may  exist  as  shadowy  names ;  but  that  old  spirit 
must  die  out  under  Christianity  which  makes  you  feel  that  America 
is  a  better  nation  than  Great  Britain,  or  than  France,  or  than  Ger- 
many, and  that  you  will  do  everything  for  America,  and  will  rather, 
on  the  whole,  take  pleasure  in  hurting  or  weakening  these  contigu- 
ous nations.  The  spirit  of  Christianity  is  a  spirit  of  universal 
brotherhood.  Though  you  may  retain  national  names  and  dis- 
tinctions as  matters  of  convenience,  the  spirit  of  humanity  should 
rise  higher  than  these  things,  and  nations  should  be  united  together 
in  sympathy. 

Those  agitators,  the  Internationals,  are  seeking  this  in  a  blind 
and  rude  way.  I  would  that  they  knew  a  better  way.  But  they 
are  striking  a  bottom-chord  which  vibrates  through  the  nations 
of  the  earth.  The  workingmen  of  the  world,  neglected  by  priests 
and  rulers  on  every  side,  are  endeavoring  to  reach  out  their  hands  to 
each  other,  so  that  the  British  working-man,  and  the  French  work- 
ingman,  and  the  American  working-man  shall  be  united,  and  so 
that,  when  crowned  heads  and  ambitious  rulers  attempt  to  go  to 
war,  the  under  classes  shall  have  the  power  to  lift  up  their  voice,  and 
say,  "  We  will  not  slay  our  brethren."  For  that  single  testimony  I 
will  bear  patiently  a  thousand  troubles,  and  a  thousand  ignorances 
among  them.  They  have  struck  a  grand  note  for  which  the  ages 
have  been  waiting,  and  which  the  church  in  its  organized  ecclesias- 
tical forms  has  never  yet  intoned. 

Oh,  that  we  could  see  the  hand  and  the  presence  of  divine 
Providence  even  when  it  does  not  come  in  the  shape  expected! 
Oh,  that  there  were  that  moral  sensibility  which  should  enable  ua 
to  recognize  the  Christian  doctrine  of  equality ! 

"  There  is  neither  Jew  nor  Greelc.    There  is  neither  bond  nor  free." 


WOMEN  TO  FBEACH7  447 

Distinctions  cease,  and  are  forgotten. 

•♦  There  is  neither  ma^e  nor  female." 

iilorality,  faith,  hope,  love,  fidelity,  honor,  service,  eloquence,  art, 
literature,  learning — these  have  no  sex.     They  belong  to  whom- 
eoever  can  have   them.      If  God   built  woman   to   sing,   there  is 
nothing  in  the  heaven  above,    nor    in  the    earth  beneath,   that 
should  check  her  song.     Sing  she  may;  for  she  has  in  her  own 
heart  God's  charter.    If  woman  can  paint  or  carve,  no  man  shall ,i      , 
say,  "This  does  not  belong  to  womanhood."     Why  did  God  give  (h'/w  i 
the  inspiration  then?     Whatever  is  right  in  this  world  is  sexless, .,»«<.#«.•/« 
in   this   sense,   that  it   belongs   to    everybody,   and   to    everybody  0<?'^'s«« 
alike — to  man  and  to  woman  ;  to  whomever  has  in  him  or  her  the  '^'''^*-^ 
impulse  to  help,  to  enlighten,  to  lift  up,  to  purify.     Whoever  can  '"'H^ 
bring  the  kingdom  of  God  nearer  to  men,  or  men  nearer  to  the  king- 
dom, in  God's  name,  and  in  the  spirit  of  an  enfranchised  Chris- 
tianity, let  him  live,  let  him  work,  let  him  build.    If  judicato- 
ries and    laws  and    customs  are    interposed,   if   precedents   and 
conventions  and  rituals  are  pleaded,   blast  them  all!      Let  that 
new  spirit,  that  larger  life,  that  bright  fruit  of  final  Christianity 
in  this  world,  hang  upon  the  bough  Avhere  God's  sun  has  ripened  it, 
and  let  this  broader  and  nobler  liberty  be  for  the  life  and  the  glory 
of  the  latter  days. 

I  am  asked,  then,  "Do  you  think  that  a  woman  may  speak  in 
meeting  ?"  No,  unless  she  has  something  to  say.  But  if  she  has 
that  to  say  Avliich,  being  said,  men  are  glad  to  hear,  and  are  bene- 
fited by,  she  ought  to  have  the  privilege  of  saying  it.  The 
objection  which  is  pleaded  against  women's  speaking,  is  its  inter- 
ference with  her  gentler  and  more  refined  offices.  If  she  can  medi- 
cate humanity  by  public  services,  I  would  have  her  do  it ;  but  I 
would  not  transmute  her  nature.  I  do  not  ask  a  woman  to  become 
a  man.  The  beauty  would  then  be  gone.  I  would  have  her  retain 
all  that  sweetness,  all  those  instinctive  delicacies,  all  that  refinement 
of  the  inward  life  and  affection,  which  are  peculiar  to  her. 

Because  I  would  cull  a  lily  of  the  valley  from  its  half-shade  and 
shelter,  and  bring  it  into  the  house,  that  it  may  diff'use  its  fragrance 
abroad,  do  I  want  to  transmute  it  into  a  huge  sunflower  ?  It  is 
because  it  is  so  sweet,  because  it  is  what  it  is,  that  I  do  cull  it,  and 
bring  it  in,  and  put  it  where  I  can  see  it. 

I  ask  no  transmutation  of  woman  into  a  virile  nature.  I  do  not 
ask  her  to  take  on  the  robust  ways  of  men.  .This  I  say :  We  have 
trumpets  enough  ;  let  us  have  flutes.  We  have  harsh,  stentorous 
music  enough  ;  let  us  have  something  softer  and  sweeter. 

There  are  some  chords  that  a  mother's  voice  can  touch,  and  none 


448  BO  TEE  SCBIPTUEES  FORBID 

others  can.  When  Lucretia  Mott  once  began  to  address  an  unman- 
nerly assembly  of  young  medical  students,  they  laughed  and  sneered 
for  a  little  time ;  but  soon  they  hushed  down  and  listened  atten- 
tively, and  finally  almost  reverentially  looked  up  to  her  as  a  matron 
and  a  mother.  She  spoke  to  them  as  she  would  have  spoken  to  her 
own  son.     Would  you  have  said  to  her,  "  Keep  silence  "? 

If  one  is  called  to  absolute  domesticity  let  her  follow  that 
calling.  If  you  do  not  wish  to  speak,  and  you  are  not  desired  to 
speak,  you  are  not  called  to  speak.  If  home,  and  the  joy  of  wedded 
love,  and  the  care  of  the  nursery,  and  the  right  training  of  the 
young,  are  pointed  out  as  your  duty,  rejoice  in  it.  I  would  not 
pluck  you  out  of  it.  Whatever  your  sphere  may  be  on  earth,  if 
you  have  faithfully  performed  the  duties  of  that  sphere,  God  will 
smile  on  you.  And  if  you  have  brought  up  a  family  of  boys  and 
girls  to  an  honorable  manhood  and  womanhood,  you  will  be  hon- 
ored in  the  heavenly  land.  But  if  God  has  given  you  a  heart  and  a 
soul  for  something  other;  if  you  are  not  called  to  serve  in  the  house- 
hold, as  many  are  not ;  if  you  are  set  apart  from  it  by  sorrows  or  dis- 
solving bereavement ;  if  in  your  ripe  age  you  discover  that  you  have 
talents  which  you  have  not  before  suspected;  if  in  maidenhood  or 
womanhood  you  have  the  voice  of  the  singer,  or  the  pen  of  the 
poet,  or  the  lips  of  inspired  eloquence,  then  there  is  nothing  in  God's 
word,  nothing  in  your  nature,  and  nothing  in  the  true  church  of 
Christ,  in  the  best  interests  of  society,  that  should  hinder  you  from 
exercising  those  gifts.  On  the  contrary,  there  is  much  in  history, 
much  in  the  community,  much  in  you,  and  much  in  the  witness  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  that  should  inspire  you  to  go  forward,  patiently 
and  meekly  bearing  the  scoffs  and  persecutions  of  your  fiery  ad- 
versaries, and  work  according  to  the  power  which  God  has  given 
you,  and  work  to  the  end,  and  rise  to  be  crowned,  and  to  shine  as 
the  stars  in  the  firmament,  because  you  have  turned  many  from  their 
sins  to  righteousness. 


WOMEN  TO  PEE  ACE  f  449 

PRAYER  BEFORE  THE  SERMON. 

"We  draw  near  to  thee,  our  Father,  rejoicing  to  believe  that  thou  hast 
toward  us  that  love  and  that  gladness  of  soul  which  bring  love  and  gladness 
from  us  in  return.  As  once  thou  didst  confer  life,  thou  canst  give  to  us  life 
again — even  the  spirit-life.  Thou  canst  by  thy  heart  give  to  us  a  new  heart; 
and  by  love  Ihou  canst  teach  us  the  supereminence  of  divine  love  in  us. 
Thou  canst  teach  us  to  love  one  another,  even  as  thou  dost  love  us.  What  is 
there  that  thou  canst  beliold  in  us — thou  before  whom  the  angels  are  charged 
with  folly ;  before  whom  all  the  bright  processions  of  the  eternal  world,  and 
all  the  glories  of  immortality  do  pass  ?  What  is  there  that  thou  canst  behold 
in  us,  just  emerging  from  our  earth-life,  full  of  rudeness,  full  of  imperfec- 
tions and  infirmities,  full  of  sins  and  transgressions  of  every  name  ?  What 
is  there  that  thou  canst  behold  in  us,  marred  by  sin,  staggering  hither  and 
thither  in  every  endeavor  which  we  make  to  walk  upon  the  right  way? 
There  is  nothing  in  our  being  that  is  lovable  in  thy  sight.  There  is  nothing 
in  our  character  that  we  can  bring  to  thy  service  which  shall  cheer  thee  and 
comfort  thee.  It  is  because  thou  art  God  that  thou  dost  have  compassion 
on  us.  It  is  because  to  be  God  is  to  love  with  everlasting  love,  pouring  out 
upon  all  things  that  are  created  and  are  struggling  in  existence  onward  and 
upward,  something  of  thine  own  nature.  We  stand  in  the  royalty  of  thy  love 
toward  us.  Our  hope  of  salvation  is  not  in  that  which  we  are,  nor  in  that 
which  we  can  do,  but  in  the  friendship  of  God.  It  is  the  gift  of  thine  heart. 
It  is  because  thou  art  so  generous,  and  so  full  of  ineffable  tenderness,  that  we 
hope.  It  is  the  royalty  of  God's  nature  that  shall  confer  salvation  upon  us. 
We  rejoice  in  the  greatness  of  thy  being,  and  in  this  revelation  of  the  inward 
nature  of  God.  We  rejoice  that  God  so  loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his 
only  begotten  Son  to  die  for  it.  We  rejoice  that  Christ  was  willing  to  de- 
scend from  the  glory  of  the  eternal  estate,  and  bear  our  condition  and  like- 
ness and  experience,  and  to  be  tempted  in  all  points  like  as  we  are — yet 
without  sin.  And  we  are  glad  now  he  has  reascended,  not  to  forget,  but 
to  remember  that  he  lives  a  Prince  and  a  Saviour. 

A  Saviour-Prince  thou  art,  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  O  Christ,  from 
whom  we  are  named;  and  thou  standest  for  us,  to  intercede  and  to  succor. 
Thou  dost  administer  the  power  of  God  unto  those,  for  their  welfare,  who 
come  unto  thee,  and  seek  to  be  joined  to  thee.  We  rejoice  that  we  have 
had  some  faith,  and  the  ministration  of  some  love,  and  that  we  hare  been 
succored  in  the  midst  of  temptations  of  selfishness  and  pride,  and  all  the 
evil  things  which  surround  lis  in  this  world.  We  rejoice  that  in  the  great 
flood  which  sweeps  men  away,  tliou  hast  come  walking  to  us,  and  taken  us 
by  the  hand,  and  given  us  rescue  and  release,  and  brought  us  somewhat 
nearer  to  thee.  But  how  far,  yet,  are  we  from  bearing  the  image  of  God  in 
our  hearts!  How  far  are  we  from  being  in  concord  with  the  spirits  of  the 
blest  in  the  heavenly  land !  But  wc  are  seeking ;  we  are  on  our  joui-uey ;  we 
are  looking  up  and  hoping  for  the  day  of  deliveraacs  and  perfection;  and 
we  rejoice,  O  Lord  Jesus,  in  that  faithfulness  of  thine  which  has  conducted 
us,  and  which  shall  conduct  us  to  the  very  end. 

Now,  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  the  forgiveness  of  all  our  sins;  the 
peace  which  comes  from  pardon ;  the  encouragement  and  hope  and  cheer 
which  come  from  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost  upon  our  souls. 

Grant,  we  pray  thee,  that  we  may  this  evening  listen  to  the  counsels  of 
thy  word,  and  seek  to  know  the  things  that  are  true.  And  grant  that  in  all 
the  week  which  is  begun  we  may  endeavor  to  carry  out  the  spirit  of  Christ 
among  men,  and  everywhere  let  our  light  shine.  May  we  be  leaders  among 
men  in  meekness,  and  gentleness,  and  truth,  and  goodness.    May  we  be  de- 


450      DO  TEE  SGEITTUBES  FOBBID  WOMEN  TO  PBEA  (JH 

livered  from  the  evils  of  temptation,  and  from  its  outbursts.  May  we  not  be 
carried  away  captive  by  it.  May  we  endeavor  to  deliver  the  captives  around 
about  us.  May  we.  in  all  our  labor  upon  earth,  still  hear  the  sound  of  that 
other  world  which  seems  so  far  off,  but  which  is  so  near.  And  grant  that  we 
may  so  live  from  day  to  day  and  from  year  to  year,  that  at  last,  when 
death  shall  come,  we  may  break  through  the  narrow  partition  which  sep- 
arates us,  and  appear  in  Zion  and  before  God. 

And  to  thy  name  shall  be  the  praise,  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit.    Amen. 


PRAYER  AFTER  THE  SERMON. 

Our  Father,  we  pray  that  thou  -wilt  add  thy  blessing  to  the  word  of  ex- 
position and  exhortation  which  we  have  spoken.  Lead  us  in  the  right  path. 
Not  alone  may  we  read  the  letter — the  old  record;  but  may  we  read,  also, 
thy  perpetual  revelation  among  men — the  uufoldLngs  of  the  history  and  ex- 
perience of  holy  men.  from  generation  to  generation.  So  may  we  know  the 
truth,  and  the  whole  truth ;  and  may  the  truth  make  us  wise  unto  salvation. 

Wilt  thou  accept  the  service  of  this  day.  Bless  us  as  we  sing  once  more 
to  thy  praise ;  bless  us  in  our  households;  bless  us  everywhere;  and  at  last 
bring  us  borne  to  thee  iu  the  heavenly  land,  for  Christ  Jesus'  sake.   Aincn. 


XXIV. 

God  First. 


INVOCATION.     • 

Our  Father,  may  thy  voice  sound  out  from  our  heavenly  home  this 
morning,  and  call  our  thoughts  upward  out  of  the  darkness,  out  of  trouble, 
out  of  fear,  out  of  anguish,  out  of  all  things  vain  and  poor,  unto  thy 
joy,  and  unto  thy  praise.  May  we  know  that  we  are  the  sons  of  God. 
May  we  judge  the  earth.  May  all  things  beneath  us  be  looked  upon  as 
they  should  look  upon  them  who  are  the  sons  of  a  king.  We  pray  for  thy 
blessing  to  rest  upon  the  service  of  the  sanctuary,  by  which  we  seek  to  make 
clearer  to  us  the  comprehension  of  thine  influence.  Bless  thy  Word  in  our 
using,  the  fellowship  of  song,  the  communion  of  prayer,  and  all  the  service 
of  instruction.  And  grant  that  this  whole  day  may  be  blessed  of  God.  For 
Christ's  sake  we  ask  it.  Amen. 
2i. 


GOD,  PIEST. 


••  And  a  certaiu  scribe  came,  and  said  unto  him,  Master,  I  will  follow  thee 
■whithersoever  thou  goest.  And  Jesus  saith  unto  him,  The  foxes  have  holes, 
and  the  birds  of  the  air  have  nests;  but  the  Sou  of  man  hath  not  where  to 
lay  his  head.  And  another  of  his  disciples  said  unto  him,  Lord,  suffer  me 
first  to  go  and  bury  ray  father.  But  Jesus  said  unto  him,  Follow  me;  and 
let  the  dead  bury  their  dead."— Matt.  VIII.  19-23. 


Nothing  can  be  further  from  the  facts  than  the  impression  that 
Christ  was  a  literal,  methodical,  practical  teacher.  That  rigid  and 
formal  manlfood  Avhich  many  of  us  associate  with  religion  had  in 
him  no  place.  Over  the  depths  of  his  life  played  a  thousand 
ripples,  as  when  the  wind  crimples  the  surface  of  the  sea.  His 
nature,  boundless  as  the  deep,  did  not  come  in  upon  ours  Avith  the 
full  breadth  and  majesty  of  tlie  ocean;  but  it  touched  liumanity  as 
the  ocean  touches  the  shores  of  tlie  Continent,  with  curved  bays  and 
inlets  shot  far  in,  witli  bold  promontories  and  rocks  here,  and  next 
tranquil  nooks  and  plashing  shallows.  All  elements  of  beauty, 
whether  in  depth  or  brightness,  ^-e  found  along  the  edge'  where 
the  land  marries  the  sea. 

The  teaching  of  Christ  is,  therefore,  full  of  paradoxes.  His 
manner  and  conversation  were  full  of  surprises.  If  yf^u  '..'ere  to  use 
the  tevm  proper  to  signify  a  certain  method  of  un  jrm  dignity, 
then  he  was  not  proper.  His  conversation  was  versatile  and  in- 
genuous and  sparkling.  This  is  shown  by  the  great  attraction  wliich 
it  had  to  the  common  people,  and  to  children,  who  were  fascinated 
by  him.  His  commands  were  sometimes  plain  as  the  very  road 
which  he  traveled ;  but  at  other  times  his  commands  were  obscure, 
and  almost  contradictory.  He  was  no  formal  canal  in  straight  lines, 
at  every  point  tlie  same  monotonous  channel  of  propriety.  He  was 
a  river,  full  of  clianges,  at  no  two  points  alike  :  here^  full  of  tranquil 
depths,  there  rushing  over  stones  or  ledges,  and  again  sweeping  in 
grand  curves,  on  either  sides  of  which  the  scene  changes.  Trees, 
shrubs,  flowers,  grass,  all  by  turns  line  the  bank. 

We  shall  not  be  surprised  then,  at  such  a  remarkable  scene  as  that 

Sunday  MonNiNO,  Feb.  18, 1872.    Lesson  :  2  Con.  IV.  6-18  ;  V.  1-5.    Hymrs,  (Ply- 
mouth Collection)  Nos.  40,  365,  346. 


451  GOD,  FIRST. 

which  is  recorJcd  in  our  text.  First  comos  to  him  one  of  the  scribes, 
saying,  "  Master  I  will  follow  thee  Avhithersoever  thou  goest."  Who 
were  these  scribes  ?  They  were  the  very  chiefest  men  of  the  nation. 
After  returning  from  the  Babylonian  captivity  the  people  gradaary 
lost  the  use  of  the  Hebrew  tongue.  Therefore,  the  reading  of  the 
Word  of  God  was  of  little  profit  in  the  Hebrew.  Moreover,  there 
were  changes  required  to  adapt  it  to  the  people  and  the  time,  and 
there  had  to  be  persons  invested  with  authority  to  prescribe  such 
changes.  The  scribes  were  the  authorized  keepers  of  the  written 
law.  They  were  the  interpreters  of  that  law,  and  also  the  conser- 
vators of  all  those  interpretations  which  had  been  made. 

As  the  law  was  the  sum  of  the  Jewish  history  and  literature  and 
philosophy,  the  scribes  were  the  doctors,  the  professors,  the  most 
earnest  students  and  scholars,  and  were  looked  up  to  by  the  people 
as  we  all  look  up  to  those  who  transcend  in  accomplishments  and  in 
that  knowledge  which  is  the  most  popular  in  any  age,  or  among  any 
particular  people.  There  were  none  who  were  higher  than  the 
scribes  in  honor  among  the  Jews. 

It  was  a  very  striking  thing,  then,  when  one  of  this  select  band 
of  honored  Jews  listening  to  the  teachings  of  Christ,  volunteered 
discipleship.  Christ  seemed  to  him,  probably,  a  rare  man,  a  prophet 
raised  up  from  among  the  Jews  ;  and  he  was  desirous  of  putting 
himself  under  his  care  and  instruction. 

But  the  way  in  which  this  overture  was  met  is  still  more  remark- 
able. If  one  had  desired  to  spread  a  secular  philosophy,  if  one  had 
come  to  institute  a  party,  if  one  had  attempted  to  organize,  in  other 
words,  an  outward  kingdom,  such  an  opportunity  as  this  would  not 
have  been  lost,  to  gather  around  about  him  influential  followers — • 
those  that  Avould  give  dignity  and  influence  to  his  teaching.  But 
our  Saviour  rejected  him.  He  said  to  him,  "  The  foxes  have  holes." 
Those  universal  enemies  that  are  followed  by  universal  enmity,  and 
that  therefore  represent,  in  some  sense,  the  very  lowest  things  in 
creation  among  the  animals — the  poorest  and  the  most  hunted  of 
all  creatures — the  foxes,  have  holes.  They  keep  house  ;  they  have 
abodes  that  are  suited  to  their  nature  and  wants.  And  if  there  are 
any  things  that  arc  comparatively  useless  to  men,  that  are  of  very 
little  account  in  the  world,  they  are  the  birds,  that  take  care  of  them- 
selves, swarming  in  the  woods  or  in  the  fields,  and  that,  if  noticed 
at  all,  are  noticed  only  to  be  shot.  Yet  "  the  birds  have  nests ;  but 
the  Son  of  man  hath  not  where  to  lay  his  head."  It  is  as  if  he  had 
fcaid,  "  I  am  houseless;  I  am  lower  than  the  least  of  all  these  things." 
This  was  his  reply. 

In  other  words,  he  said  to  the  man,  "  You  have  misconceived, 


QOD,  BIBST.  455 

entirely.  The  kingdom  that  I  came  to  establish  is  to  have  no  such 
future  as  you  anticipate.  There  is  to  be  no  such  development  as 
shall  put  you  in  a  position  of  rank  or  title,  or  exalt  you  in  influence, 
and  so  in  wealth.  I  am  lower  than  the  lowest  creatures,  and  shall 
abide  so  as  to  exterior  matters.  If  you  follow  me,  you  must  lift  your 
expectation  higher  than  you  have  done."  And  so  he  set  him  apart. 
The  next  case  is  even  more  remarkable.  The  way  in  which  the 
Saviour  addressed  the  several  apjolicants  was  the  strangest  way  im- 
aginable of  gathering  disciples.  Luke  tells  us  that  he  saw  the 
young  man,  and  commanded  him  to  follow.  In  Matthew  it  ap- 
pears as  if  the  young  man  had  proffered  his  own  following. 
"Another  of  his  disciples  [by  disciples  was  meant  simply  those  that 
followed  him  for  instruction:  disciple  undL pupil  are  identical,  mean- 
ing one  that  followed  Christ  for  the  purpose  of  being  instructed] 
said  unto  him,  Lord  suffer  me  first  to  go  and  bury  my  father."  If  ~ 
you  put  Luke's  construction  upon  it,  it  is,  "  Christ  said.  Follow  me ; 
and  he  said.  Lord  suffer  me  first  to  go  and  bury  my  father.  But 
Jesus  said  unto  him,  Follow  me ;  and  let  the  dead  bury  their 
dead." 

This,  evidently,  was  one  who  had  felt  the  power  of  Christ's 
teachings,  and  the  beauty  of  holiness.  In  his  heart  there  had 
been  a  vague  and  yet  strong  desire  for  another  and  a  better  life. 
When  he  was  singled  out  by  the  Master,  and  beckoned  to  be- 
come a  permanent  adherent,  he  interposed  but  one  single  con- 
dition. It  is  hardly  possible  to  conceive  of  a  condition  which  was 
better  selected,  and  which  would  justify  so  well  his  request.  "  My 
father  is  dead :  let  me  go  and  bury  him,  and  thea  I  will  return  and 
become  a  disciple."  "What  does  not  a  son  owe  to  a  father,  or  to 
a  mother  ?  and  when,  in  all  one's  life,  is  it  right  that  one  should 
pause,  that  there  should  be  vacation  in  business  and  vacation 
m.  pleasure,  if  not  in  that  hour  when  we  bestow  the  last  testimony 
of  affection  and  of  honor  upon  those  who  have  spent  their  years  and 
their  substance  in  rearing  us  to  manhood ! 

Did  Jesus  undervalue  the  relation  of  father  and  son  ?  Did  he 
speak  contemptuously  of  the  grief  of  a  mourning  child,  and  of  the 
sacred  duties  which  he  owed  to  his  unburied  father  ?  Is  it  possible, 
with  our  sense  of  the  infinite  love  and  gentleness  and  delicacy  of 
Christ's  mind  and  our  reverence  for  it,  that  we  can  for  a  moment 
suppose  him  to  have  indulged  in  anything  so  harsh  as  the  language 
with  which  he  is  recorded  to  have  repelled  this  young  man  .''  In- 
stead of  uttering  any  word  of  sympathy  to  the  young  man, 
instead  of  asking  after  his  father,  instead  of  speaking  some  comfort- 


456  GOD,  FIB8T. 

irg  word  to  him,  and  bidding  him  Godspeed  on  so  nohle  and 
natural  and  jnst  an  errand  as  this,  he  said  to  him,  "  Let  the  dead 
bury  their  dead  :  follow  thou  me."  The  thing  itself  seems  suffi- 
ciently severe  ;  and  this  language  seems  severer  and  harsher  still. 

But,  after  all,  we  are  to  remember,  fii'st,  that  the  whole  conver- 
sation and  all  its  connections,  are  not  given  in  the  Evangelist.  No 
man  can  transfer  to  paper  that  which  passes  in  life.  The  gesture, 
the  posture,  the  expression,  that  which  the  eye  speaks,  that  Avhich 
the  hand  says,  all  that  goes  before,  all  that  attends — the  actual  life — ■ 
can  never  be  reproduced  by  any  description  of  life  ;  and  this  is 
signally  true  in  the  parables  of  our  Saviour,  the  most  of  which  hang 
strung  together  upon  a  thread,  as  separated  from  the  circumstances 
as  a  pearl  is  from  the  place  where  it  grew.  We  have  to  imagine,  often, 
what  it  was  that  the  parable  illustrated  in  the  history  of  Christ ; 
and  in  many  of  these  historic  instances  all  that  went  before,  and  all 
that  accompanied,  is  omitted,  and  the  barest  bones,  if  I  may  so  say,  ol 
the  transaction,  are  saved.  But,  much  as  this  case  seems  like  bones 
unclothed  of  flesh,  barren  as  it  is,  it  will  bear  examination;  and  when 
we  look  at  it  from  the  interior  instead  of  the  exterior,  it  may  not  seem 
so  harsh  as  it  does  now. 

One  might  ask.  Are  the  affections  and  the  duties  which  spring 
from  our  domestic  relations  antagonistic  to  religion  ?  Are  they  so 
antagonistic  that  a  man  must  set  them  aside  in  order  to  be  a  Chris- 
tian according  to  the  divine  conception  of  religion  ?  They  may  be 
channels  of  religion;  or,  they  may  be  substitutes  for  religion — and 
that  is  an  important  distinction.  If  our  affections  and  duties  as 
children  are  all  that  there  is,  and  if  we  make  them  a  substitute  for 
our  duties  to  God  and  our  own  higher  life,  then  these  lower  duties 
are  mischiefs,  they  are  snares;  but  if  we  accept  these  affections  and 
domestic  duties  as  methods  by  which  we  reach  up  to  a  higher  life, 
then  they  become  harmonious  and  imperative. 

Now,  if  Christ  saw  that  this  interposed  duty  on  the  part  of  the 
young  man  was  really  a  shield,  even  though  the  man  did  not  know 
it  himself  (we  deceive  ourselves  unconsciously  every  day ;  we  are  all 
the  time  shielding  ourselves  from  duties  by  the  plea  of  other  duties, 
when  we  do  not  know  it) ;  if  our  Saviour  saw  that  behind  this  most 
natural  plea  the  young  man  was,  after  all,  only  preparing  the  way 
to  get  rid  of  conscience,  to  quench  this  new  fire  of  aspiration,  and  to 
leave  him,  in  this  fact  will  be  found  a  sufficient  reason  for  the  courso 
which  he  pursued  with  him. 

While  the  young  man  was  in  the  Saviour's  presence,  it  is 
doubtless  true  that  a  life  of  duty,   the  sense  of  obligation,  and 


GOD,  FIRST.  457 

the  relations  of  the  soul  to  God,  shone  radiantly  upon  him.  The 
whole  sense  of  character  "in  him  was  illuminated.  All  the  impulses 
of  his  nature  were  tending  in  the  right  direction.  It  was  a  motnent 
for  decision  and  for  choice  not  to  be  neglected.  He  stood  on  the 
very  yerge  of  transition  into  a  nobler  and  higher  condition.  If  he 
had  been  strong,  and  if  he  had  been  confirmed  in  his  right  life,  he 
could  have  gone  to  the  burial  of  his  father  and  returned,  just  as  the 
disciples  went  to  the  Sea  of  Galileee  and  to  their  nets,  and  resumed 
their  former  occupations,  until  they  were  met  by  Christ  once  more, 
when  they  forsook  all  and  followed  him  again.  But  if  he  was  of 
an  easy  nature,  if  he  was  mutable  in  his  disposition,  if  he  was  liable 
to  ferment,  if  the  uproar  of  an  Oriental  funeral  would  put  out  that 
spark,  that  lighted  flame,  which  had  just  begun  to  glow,  and  he 
would  forget  the  Teacher,  and  the  things  which  he  had  been  taught, 
and  would  resume  his  old  life,  and  pass  on,  and  fail  of  the  great  king- 
dom— then  the  best  thing  that  could  have  been  done  for  him  was 
just  that  which  the  Saviour  did. 

So,  then,  as  Jesus  may  have  discriminated  it,  here  was  a  man  in 
danger  of  losing  the  highest  ends  of  life  by  pleading  a  domestic  duty. 
If  we  judge  by  the  exterior,  by  conventional  views,  our  Saviour's 
treatment  of  the  case  was  hard  ;  but  if  we  judge  by  the  interior;  by 
the  subtle  and  deceitful  tendencies  of  the  human  soul,  it  was 
humane.  The  Lord  took  part  with  the  man's  interior  manhood. 
He  was  a  better  friend  to  him  than  he  was  to  himself.  He  said  to 
him  only  this  :  "  Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  its  righteous- 
ness.    That  first.     All  other  things  will  then  come  into  play."  ^ 

I  have  no  doubt  that  if  this  young  man  had  said  to  Jesus,  "  My 
father  is  dead,  but  my  heart  clings  to  thee  and  to  thy  ways,  and  I 
will  leave  to  those  who  are  at  home  the  burial,  and  will  follow 
thee  ";  I  have  no  doubt  that  if  the  Saviour  had  seen  that  the  young 
man's  heart  was  fixed  on  this  higher  life,  he  would  have  said  to  him, 
"  Eeturn  to  thy  father's  house,  and  bury  thy  father,  and  then  come 
and  follow  me":  but  discerning  the  other  state — that  with  the 
beginnings  of  a  noble  ambition  and  aspiration,  he  was  at  just  that 
point  of  choice  where,  unconsciously  to  himself,  he  desired  to  g*lide 
away  from  this  obligation  of  the  heart,  and  seized  upon  this  occasion 
of  natural  duty,  and  said,  "I  will  follow  thee,  but  suffer  me 
first  to  go  and  bury  my  father;"  seeing  that  it  Avas  but  an 
excuse  and  an  abandonment  of  a  higher  and  nobler  career,  he 
said  to  him,  "  Let  those  who  care  nothing  for  spiritual  life,  thc^se 
who  are  at  home,  and  immersed  in  the  world,  those  who  are  spiritually 
dead — let  them  bury  the  dead.  Thou,  to  wliom  has  come  for  the 
first  time  this  new  thought,  this  glorious  illumination,  the  open 


458  GOD,  FIRST. 

heavens,  and  the  accepted  Teacher;  thou,  who  hast  springing  up  in 
thee  the  germs  of  this  new  and  nobler  life,  confirm  thyself  in  this 
purpose  now,  instantly ;  and  let  nothing  turn  thee  aside  from  it." 

There  was  no  antagonism.  It  was  a  question  of  simply  whether 
a  man  should  use  a  natural  affection  and  a  natural  duty  for  the  sake 
of  avoiding  a  higher  manhood ;  whether  he  should  interpose  it  as  a 
shield  and  as  an  excuse. 

I  remark,  then,  first:  Men  may  be  attracted  by  the  fruit  of  re- 
ligion who  will  utterly  abandon  the  pursuit  of  that  fruit  and  of  that 
religion  when  they  see  what  the  labor  is  which  is  required  to  obtain 
them.  The  scribe  who  came  to  our  Master  and  said,  "  I  will  follow 
thee  whithersoever  thou  goest,"  was  answered,  "  No.  You  believe 
that  that  which  is  so  beautiful  in  me  and  in  my  instruction, 
is  super-eminently  desirable ;  you  wish  to  become  my  dis- 
ciple; and  you  have  an  idea  of  a  prosperity  and  increase 
of  glory,  consequent  upon  discipleship,  that  Avill  nev^er  be  realized. 
All  you  understand  seems  supremely  good  to  you ;  but  the  moment 
you  are  put  to  the  test,  and  are  obliged  to  follow  me  through  pov- 
erty, and  reproach,  and  self-denial,  you  will  hardly  be  able  to  pur- 
chase this  life  at  the  price  which  it  will  cost  you.*' 

We  have  a  similar  instance  where  the  mother  of  Zebedee's  child- 
ren brought  them  to  Christ,  and  said,  "  Grant  that  these  my  two 
sons  may  sit,  the  one  on  thy  right  hand,  and  the  other  on  the  left, 
in  thy  kingdom  ";  and  he  said,  "  Are  ye  able  to  drink  of  the  cup 
that  I  shall  drink  of,  and  to  be  baptized  with  the  baptism  that  I  am 
baptized  withal  ?  You  want  to  rise  in  honor  in  my  kingdom  :  can 
you  pay  the  price  of  this  elevation  ?"  They  did  not  even  under- 
stand it. 

The  scribe  desired  to  be  a  follower  of  Christ,  with  his  eye  upon 
mundane  glory.  He  anticipated  earthly  advancement.  And  Christ 
said  to  him,  substantially,  "  My  kingdom  is  within.  It  i^  holiness 
of  the  heart.  It  is  an  affluence  of  true  and  disinterested  love.  It  is 
transcendent  goodness.  It  is  the  sweetness  of  spirituality.  If  you 
attempt  to  follow  me  you  will  stumble  and  fail  on  the  very  thresh- 
old.* You  cannot  afford  to  pay  the  price  of  such  fruit  of  holiness  as 
you  now  admire,  and  are  drawn  toward." 

A  citizen  goes  into  the  market  in  high  summer,  and  sees  all  the 
stalls  loaded  down  with  attractive  vegetables  and  luscious  fruits. 
On  every  side  they  glow.  Their  odor  fills  the  air.  He  is  attracted 
to  them.  He  says  to  himself,  "  Beautiful !  Gardening  is  the  most 
delightful  occupation  of  a  man's  life ;  and  I  am  bound  to  do  one 
thing :  I  will  sell  all  I  have  in  the  city,  and  will  move  to  the  coun- 
try, and  will  have  a  garden.    Just  look  at  these  vegetables  and  (Lis 


GOD,  FIRST.  459 

fruit!"  He  goes  and  buys  his  ground,  and  moves  into  the  country. 
And  the  summer  goes,  as  well  as  he.  The  weather  grows  hotter  and 
hotter.  And  the  man  takes  his  spade  and  line  and  rake  and  hoe, 
and  goes  out  into  his  garden  to  prepare  the  beds  for  his  vegetables. 
But  before  he  has  wrought  a  week  he  begins  to  feel  that,  after  all, 
vegetables  are  not  so  important  to  a  man's  life.  Vegetables  gathered 
and  spread  out  in  Fulton  Market  are  delicious,  and  pleasing  to  be- 
hold] but  vegetables  in  a  man's  garden,  if  he  has  got  to  Avork  and 
toil  for  weeks,  and  months,  and  all  summer,  to  raise  them,  cost  he 
thinks,  more  than  they  come  to.  You  will  hear  men  Avho  have  gons 
to  the  country,  and  have,  after  trying  farming  a  little  while,  come 
back  to  the  city,  tell  about  potatoes  that  cost  them  a  dollar  apiece! 

A  man  fascinated  with  the  idea  of  raising  fruit,  goes  to  the ' 
country  and  sets  out  his  orchards  with  bright  anticipations  as  to 
the  result.  But  no  sooner  have  his  trees  got  well  started  than  all 
nature  becomes  his  tormentor.  The  frost  blasts  the  blossoms.  The 
worms  gnaw  the  roots.  The  insects  sting  both  blossoms  and  roots. 
And  when  he  has  toiled  year  after  year,  and  brought  his  trees  into 
such  a  state  that  he  thinks  he  is  going  to  have  a  profusion  of 
delicious  fruit,  the  black  wart  seizes  his  plum-trees,  and  the  gum- 
canker  attacks  his  cherry-trees,  and  the  winter-blight  kills  his  pear 
trees,  and  his  apple-trees  will  not  bear  anyhow ;  and  at  last,  dis- 
gusted with  raising  fruit,  he  comes  back  to  the  city,  and  says,  "  I 
prefer,  after  all,  that  other  people  should  be  my  pomologists.  I  have 
had  enough  of  gardening." 

People  go  to  the  house  of  God,  and  hear  the  chanting  and 

singing,  and  hear  the  reading  from  the  Word  of  God,  and  see  the 

tranquil  faces  of  the  worshipers,  and  listen  to  the  serene  voice  that 

speaks  of  the  higher  life ;  and  they  feel  drawn  to  this  higher  life ; 

and  they  say,  "  I  will  follow  Christ ;  I  will  be  a  Christian ;  I  will 

live  a  religious  life."    But  the  next  day,  when  they  attempt  to 

follow  Christ,  there  comes  the  conflict  with  selfishness — and  that, 

too,   in   its   most  vulgar  and  provoking  forms ;  the  conflict  with 

pride,  in  its  most  annoying  methods ;  the  conflict  with  temper,  in 

its  most  flagitious  moods ;  conflicts  of  every  sort  in  society.     It  seems 

to  them  as  though  they  had  thrown  themselves  into  a  hedge  of 

thorns ;  and  they  say,  "  This  is  more  than  I  bargained  for :  I  wanted 

religion."    Yes,  you  wanted  religion,  just  as  Naaman  wanted  to  be 

healed,  who  said, 

"  I  thought,  he  will  surely  come  out  to  me,  and  stand,  and  call  on  the 
name  of  the  Lord  his  God,  and  strike  his  hand  over  the  place,  and  recover 
the  leper.  Are  not  Abana  and  Pharpar,  rivers  of  Damascus,  better  than  all 
the  waters  of  Israel  ?  may  I  not  wash  in  them,  and  be  clean  ?" 


\ 


460  GOB,  FIRST. 

Multitudes  are  drawn  to  religion  by  the  poetry  and  effluence  and 
beauty  of  its  last  stages, .  and  are  kindled  to  enthusiasm  by  them, 
and  long  to  realize  them  in  their  own  experience  ;  but  the  toil,  the 
yoke,  the  burden,  the  cross,  they  abhor.  These  do  not  enter  into 
their  anticipation. 

One  may  be  kept  or  led  away  from  the  pursuits  of  a  religious 
life  by  things  which  are  innocent  in  themselves,  which  are  right, 
and  which  are  even  in  the  nature  of  indispensable  duties  and  hu- 
manities. Is  a  true  religious  life,  then,  inconsistent  with  secular 
duties  ?  No.  With  domestic  duties  ?  No.  With  civil  duties  ?  No. 
Indeed,  industrial  life,  domestic  life,  social  life,  and  civil  life,  are  insti- 
tutions of  spiritual  culture.  It  is  by  these,  and  through  them,  that 
we  are  developed  into  a  higher  religious  state.  And  yet,  it  is  true 
that  a  man  may  be  kept  from  spirituality  by  these  indispensable 
secular  duties.  It  is  so  because  it  is  necessary  that  there  should  be 
harmony  and  subordination.  It  is  not  enough  that  a  man  simply 
does  right  things.  They  must  be  done  in  right  proportions  and  in 
the  right  order. 

A  kind  soul,  being  childless,  adopts  a  group  of  children,  and 
brings  them  to  her  house,  and  proposes  to  give  them  an  education, 
and  to  develop  them  into  a  nobler  citizenship.  But,  being  extremely 
domestic,  she  bestows  her  strength  on  their  bodily  wants.  She  rises 
early,  and  sits  up  late,  and  sees  that  they  are  cleanly  in  person,  and 
well  clad.  Her  fingers  ply  the  ready  needle  incessantly.  And  they 
are  properly  fed  and  taken  care  of.  She  devotes  herself  so  com- 
pletely to  the  providing  of  their  clothes  and  food,  to  the  supplying 
of  their  physical  wants,  that  her  energies  are  utterly  exhausted,  and 
she  has  none  to  spend  on  anything  besides.  It  is  so  to-day,  and 
to-morrow,  and  the  next  day,  and  continually.  She  is  all  the  time 
shoeing  them,  and  clothing  them,  and  feeding  them,  and  putting 
them  to  bed,  and  taking  them  up  again,  and  cleansing  them.  She  is 
all  the  while  caring  for  their  bodies.  She  thinks  perpetually,  "  They 
must  be  educated ;  their  minds  must  be  cultivated ;  but  she  has  no 
time  for  instructing  them.  All  her  time  is  consumed  upon  their 
lower  necessities. 

Now,  I  ask  whether  this  looking  after  the  physical  wants  of 
these  children  does  not  supersede  something  still  higher.  Although 
these  things  ought  to  be  done,  ought  not  the  others  to  be  done  also  ? 
If  there  is  to  be  any  relativeness,  any  preference  as  to  time,  is  it  not 
to  be  in  accordance  with  our  Master's  declaration : 

"  Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his  righteousness  ?" 

That  turns  everything  bottom  side  up.    You  do  not  believe  it. 


GOD,  FIRST.  4G1 

IvTature  does  not  believe  it.  Every  man  says,  "  I<et  uie  first  get  a 
foothold  in  this  world ;  let  me  build  up  a  good  business  ;  let  me 
establish  myself;  and  as  soon  as  I  am  once  successful,  I  mean  to  be 
religious."  The  Master  says,  "  That  is  the  order  of  nature.  That 
sprang  from  the  earth  ;  aud  the  forces  that  spring  from  the  earth 
are  strongest  and  most  importunate.  But  in  my  kingdom  the  law  is 
•  to  seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God ;  to  seek  first  spiritual  things,  as 
the  highest  things ;  to  seek  first  righteousness,  and  all  its  multitu- 
dinous contents.  God,  the  Invisible  ;  loA'^e ;  faith ;  hope ;  divine 
obedience — seek  these  first.  Then  all  those  other  things  shall  be 
added  unto  you.     Tliey  will  come  by  natural  sequence." 

He  who  touches  the  highest,  touches  all  that  is  below  it ;  though 
he  who  touches  the  lowest,  does  not  touch  all  that  is  above  it. 
Things  are  so  wrought  together,  in  the  providence  of  God,  that  the 
higher  elements  carry  the  lower,  though  the  lower  could  not  carry 
the  higher.  ^' 

/  There  are  those  who  are  perpetually  putting  as  an  excuse  before 
their  own  minds  indispensable  duties,  pre-occupation.  One  has  no 
time  for  religion,  because  home  duties  are  so  onerous.  As  if  religion 
was  not  that  very  element  in  which  home  duties  are  buoyed  up,  and 
in  which  they  swim,  as  the  boat  swims  upon  the  sea !  As  if  one 
were  not  fitted  to  contest  with  poverty  and  to  work  who  has  the 
supernal  inspiration  and  joy  and  hope  of  a  higher  atmosphere  above 
him !  As  if  a  man  were  not  more  competent  to  bufiet  care  if  he 
have  new  realms  of  spiritual  intelligence  than  if  he  live  in  a  loAver 
sphere !  Aud  yet,  persons  are  perpetually  putting  duties  in  the  way 
of  their  spiritual  development.  Sufer  me  iirst,  is  a  barrier  strong 
enough  to  prevent  men,  all  their  life  long,  from  following  Christ.  It 
is  not  that  you  desire  wrong  things;  it  is  not  that  you  desire  to 
avoid  right  things ;  but  you  say,  "  Suffer  me  first  to  do  the  inferior, 
and  then  I  will  be  ready  for  the  superior.  Suffer  me  first  to  take 
care  of  myself  Suffer  me  first  to  take  care  of  my  household.  Suffer 
me  first  to  take  care  of  my  business.  Suffer  me  first  to  take  care 
of  my  party.  Suffer  me  first  to  take  care  of  this  enterprise,  aud 
then  — ."  No  !  This  constant  habit  of  humbling  the  higher,  and 
making  it  subordinate  to  the  loAver;  this  constant  preference  of  the 
inferior  to  the  superior,  Avorks  demoralization.  A  man  docs  not 
need  to  throw  away  his  Bible,  nor  defy  his  God,  nor  sell  his  soul 
voluntarily.  He  only  needs  to  say,  "  Suffer  me  first  to  do  this 
lesser  thing."  The  moment  that  is  done,  there  Avill  be  another 
"Suffer  me  first"  in  its  place.  And  so  we  shall  put  the  inferior 
duties  in  the  place  of  higher  duties,  and  go  through  life,  and  fail  at 
.:i.:;t.     No  matter  what  it  is,  there  is  nothing  on  earth  that  should 


462  GOD,  FIBST. 

02cupy  so  higli  a  place  in  your  affections  as  your  own  spiritual  re- 
generated manhood ;  your  own  faith  in  Christ ;  your  duty  toward 
God;  your  own  security  in  the  land  of  immortality.  The  things 
which  are  highest  to  you  are  the  things  Avhicli  deserve  to  be  first ; 
and  it  is  a  blight  on  your  higher  duties  to  put  your  lower  duties  in 
the  place  of  them.  It  is  a  violation  of  the  true  order  of  spiritual 
nature. 

It  is  not  enough  that  we  approve,  admire,  and  desire  things 
that  are  right,  true  and  religious.  We  must  desire  them  more 
than  we  desire  anything  else.  The  desire  for  them  must  be  the 
strongest  desire.  I  apprehend  that  there  are  no  persons  in  tlie 
world  who  do  not  desire  the  best  things ;  but  you  know  that  there 
are  very  few  persons  in  the  world  who  desire  them  more  than  they  do 
anything  else.  The  lazy  man  desires  the  fruit  of  industry  ;  but  he 
does  not  desire  it  at  the  price  of  working.  There  are  other  things 
which  he  desires  more  than  that.  The  truant  school-boy  desires  to 
be  learned  ;  but  alas  !  he  does  not  desire  to  study.  He  wishes  he 
knew  his  arithmetic  lesson ;  but  he  wishes  a  great  deal  more  that  he 
knew  what  is  in  that  blue-bird's  nest  in  that  tree  ;  and  he  will  go 
and  see  if  he  can  get  a  chance.  There  is  a  desire  on  his  part  in 
either  direction,  though  it  is  stronger  in  one  direction  than  in  the 
other.  A  man  desires  virtue,  only  it  is  so  hard  to  be  virtuous.  A 
man  desires  to  be  moral;  but  the  ten  thousands  little  seductive  steps 
by  which  he  leans  toward  self-indulgence  are  stronger  than  his  wish 
to  be  a  pure  and  noble  man.  I  think  that  even  selfish  and  greedy 
men  desire  to  be  benevolent.  If  you  could  throw  benevolence  over 
them  as  a  garment,  they  would  like  it.  If  you  could  take  out 
of  them  their  selfishness  and  sordidness,  they  would  like  that.  Many 
times  they  are  conscious  of  their  bondage  ;  but  while  they  desire  to 
exchange  a  heart  of  selfishness  for  a  heart  of  benevolence,  they 
desire  something  more  than  that.  That  is  not  their  strongest  desire. 
It  is  not  first,  either  in  point  of  time,  or  in  point  of  strength.  It 
*has  no  priority,  and  no  supereminent  intensity.  When  we  see  men 
pursuing  second,  third  and  fourth-rate  courses,  they  desire  these 
more  than  better  ones. 

Men  say,  "  I  am  not  so  very  bad.  I  see  what  is  right,  and  approve 
of  it.  I  believe  in  the  Bible,  in  the  Sabbath-day,  and  in  good 
people.  My  mother  was  a  good,  praying  Christian;  and  I  have  often 
wished  that  I  was  like  her ;  and  I  mean  to  be,  some  time.  I  do  not 
always  intend  to  be  what  I  am  now.  I  would  not  have  you  think 
that  I  have  not  my  own  thoughts  about  religion.  I  tell  you,  I  have 
many  serious  hours.  I  really  wish  I  was  a  Christian."  I  know  it  ; 
but  you  wish  you  were  not  a  great  deal  more.     You  wish  you  were 


GOD,  FIRST.  463 

a  Cliristian  in  generics ;  but  in  every  specific  you  wish  you  were  not. 
That  is,  as  each  particular  duty  comes  up  before  you  from  day  to 
day,  doing  it  right  means  to  be  a  Cliristian  ;  doing  it  wrong  means 
not  to  be  one;  and  you  do  it  wroug,  and  prefer  to  do  it  wrong.  You 
think  of  yourself ;  you  lay  out  your  life  so  that  it  shall  minister  to 
your  own  enjoyment ;  and  thus  you  violate  the  law  of  love.  You 
desire  to  do  things  which  are  customary  and  worldly  and  selfish.  The 
desire  of  self-indulgence  is  your  strongest  desire.  A  man  may  be  a 
very  good  man  in  his  imagination,  who  is  a  very  poor  man  in  his 
practice. 

Oh !  what  pictures  there  would  be,  if  I  could  only  take  the  trouble 
to  learn  to  paint  the  things  that  I  dream  about !  Such  frescoes !  Such 
magnificent  renderings  of  magnificent  scenes  !  Such  portraitures  ! 
The  trouble  is,  that  while  my  imagination  is  fruitful  enough,  it  is  a 
shiftless  and  careless  fruitfulness,  and  it  never  comes  down  lower 
than  that,  and  dies  in  the  nest  where  it  was  born.  I  think  of  things, 
and  turn  them  over,  and  turn  them  over,  and  make  pictures,  and 
forget  them,  and  make  pictures,  and  forget  them  ;  but  I  am  not  an 
artist.  An  artist  is  a  man  whose  wishes  get  down  through  his 
shoulders  to  his  fingers  ;  and  he  makes  what  he  wishes  he  was  going 
to  make.  He  does.  He  turns  into  account  that  which  would  other- 
wise die  as  smoke  or  cloud.  Men  of  reveiy  are  like  clouds  that 
never  rain.  Men  of  function  shower  down  resolutions  in  the  form 
of  drops,  and  results  spring  up  from  tliem. 

^  It  is  not  enough  that  a  man  should  say,  "I  admire  the  character 
of  Christ ;  I  admire  the  precepts  of  religion  ;  I  admire  every  Chris- 
tian man  or  woman  who  is  fulfilling  what  seems  to  him  or  her  to  be 
the  spirit  of  religion.  I  never  see  such  persons  that  I  do  not  wish 
that  I  was  like  them."  / 

There  are  persons  who  sit  lingering  wistfully  here.  Do  you  knoAV 
how  curious  birds  are  ?  When  you  go  into  a  field  without  racket 
or  violence,  and  sit  down  with  little  birds,  or  anything  that  concerns 
them,  all  the  birds  of  the  thicket  around  about  you,  after  a  while, 
will  begin  to  fly  a  little  nearer,  and  a  little  nearer,  and  look  down, 
and  watch  to  see  what  is  going  on.  I  have  seen  birds  in  the  galleries 
here  on  Communion  days  who  were  doing  the  same  thing  ;  one 
hovering  there,  and  another  yonder,  and  leaning  over  the  balus- 
trades to  see  what  was  going  on  at  the  Communion  table,  A  great 
many  of  them  think  very  serious  things.  Many  of  them,  as  they 
sit  there,  and  look  down,  think  of  father  and  mother ;  and  they  can 
almost  hear  them  speaking  out  of  the  air,  and  saying,  "  0  thou 
wandering  child!  thou  shouldest  be  down  there  among  them."  Per- 
sons look  over  there  and  say,  "  When  she  was  dying,  she  made  me 


4G4:  GOD,  FIEST. 

promise  that  I  would  become  a  Chi-istiau ;  but  I  have  never  done  it." 
People  undergo  penances  with  a  sort  of  relish.  Their  conscience  has 
a  kind  of  atonement  in  it.  Many  men  and  women  stand  looking 
upon  a  congregation  like  this  in  the  act  of  supreme  worship  or  con- 
secration ;  and  the  beauty  of  holiness  seems  beautiful  indeed  to 
them  ;  and  they  go  away  with  downcast  face  and  sympathetic  heart ; 
and  Avhen  they  get  home  they  say,  "  I  tell  you,  that  sermon  did  me 
good  to-day.  I  am  glad  I  went  to  that  church."  Oh,  yes ;  but  that 
sermon  will  be  like  water  spilled  upon  the  sand.  It  will  moisten  it, 
and  drain  away,  and  to-morrow  neither  grass  nor  flower  will  show 
where  the  drops  fell.  It  ministers  to  nothing.  You  approved  of 
the  sermon  ;  you  felt  sympathetic  with  it ;  you  desired  that  which 
it  set  forth  ;  you  longed  for  it ;  but  you  longed  for  something  else  a 
great  deal  more. 

There  are  those  in  my  presence  who  have  been  here  for  years  and 
years.  They  are  cultured,  intelligent  men,  and  men  full  of  domestic 
excellence,  according  to  the  worldly  scale  of  goodness.  They  al- 
ways have  meant  to  be  better.  They  have  fashioned  to  themselves 
the  higher  life.  They  have  yearned  for  the  faith  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Sometimes  by  teaching,  and  sometimes  by  living  examples,  they 
have  looked  upon  this  glorious  higher  life,  and  longed  for  it,  and 
meant  to  have  it,  and  passed  on,  and  formed  the  habit  of  joassing 
on  ',  and  it  appears  as  though  they  would  pass  on  to  the  very  end. 
They  seem  to  be  spending  their  life  in  desiring  to  follow  Christ,  and 
never  following  him.  They  are  ahvays  saying,  "  Suffer  me  first  to  go 
and  take  care  of  Monday,  and  then  I  will  follow  thee ; "  until  Tues- 
day morning,  when  they  say,  "  Lord,  suffer  me  first  to  take  care  of 
Tuesday."  And  then  it  is,  "  Lord,  suffer  me  first  to  take  care  ol 
Wednesday,  and  then  I  will  return  and  worship  thee."  And  it  is 
the  same  on  Thursday  and  Friday,  and  every  day.  It  is  this  week 
and  next  week ;  this  month  and  next  month ;  this  year  and  next 
year.  And  in  the  time  of  sorrow,  it  is,  "When  this  shall  have 
passed  away  I  will  serve  thee;"  and  in  the  time  of  joy,  it  is,  "When 
this  shall  have  passed,  I  will  begin."  When  business  presses,  it  is, 
"  I  will  take  a  vacation,  and  then  I  will  attend  to  my  religious 
duties ;"  and  in  vacation  time,  it  is,  "  I  am  so  tired  out  and  un- 
strung that  there  is  no  use  of  my  beginning  now."  There  is  always 
some  reason  pleaded  by  men  for  deferring,  avoiding,  not  fulfilling 
those  duties  which  the  voice  of  conscience  urges  upon  them.  This 
laying  hold,  really,  by  faith,  upon  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  is  the  thing 
that  is  never  done. 

/  There  is  not  one  single  part  of  your  successful  life  that  does  not 
rebuke  your  Christian  life.     You  know  that  in  secular  matters 


GOD,  FIRST.  4G5 

nothirig  is  ever  done  until  desire  ripens  to  preference,  and  prefer- 
ence ripens  to  choice.  If  you  have  succeeded  in  anything  in  this 
life,  it  is  because  at  last  choice  was  confirmed,  and  you  concentrated 
your  energies  on  the  desirable  thing,  and  obtained  it.  No  man  ever 
took  hold  of  a  godly  life  as  men  take  hold  of  a  secular  life,  and  fol- 
lowed it  up  with  such  persistence  as  men  employ  in  a  secular  life,  that 
he  did  not,  by  augmenting  knowledge  and  progressive  steps,  rise  to 
the  realm  of  spirituality  and  religion. 

What  men  need  most,  is  not  that  their  imagination  should  go 
nnillumined,  and  is  not  that  they  should  abandon  secular  activities, 
but  that  their  strongest  love,  their  highest  conception  of  manhood, 
should  be  in  the  direction  of  subordinating  the  inferior  to  the  supe- 
rior developments  of  the  soul,  and  that  they  should  say,  "  I  will  seek 
first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his  righteousness."  I  am  sure  that 
the  man  who  does  that  will  find  all  desirable  things  added  to  him. 

I  beseech  you,  lingerers,  procrastinators,  you  that  have  surveyed 
the  sweet  and  flowery  fields  of  Christianity ;  you  that  have  looked 
over  into  the  garden  of  the  Lord ;  you  that  have  smelled  the  fra- 
grance which  has  issued  from  a  godly  life,  look  not  on  it  any  longer 
simply  with  the  eyes  of  desire.  Choose  ye  this  day  wliom  ye  will 
serve.  If  the  Lord  be  God,  and  your  God,  serve  him.  Choose !  Let 
the  day  of  these  vapid,  formless,  ineflectual  thoughts  and  yearn- 
ings and  aspirations  cease.  Put  no  value  upon  them.  Do  not 
deceive  yourselves  in  supposing  that  they,  if  not  entirely  religious, 
are  almost  religion.  That  is  a  religious  life  which  has  bones  in  it, 
and  muscles  on  the  bones,  and  flesh  clothing  the  muscles.  A  reli- 
gious life  has  also  an  animated  soul  in  it;  and  that  soul  is  to  desire 
and  prefer  and  choose  the  highest  and  best  things.  And  when  you 
shall  have  chosen  God  above  all  others  as  your  portion,  and  the  life 
of  a  true  spiritual  obedience  as  the  highest  form  of  life,  that  choice 
'  should  dominate  everything  else.  Then  you  will  indeed  have  entered 
upon  a  new  life.       / 

May  God  grant  that  some  of  you  who  have  hitherto  been  saying, 
"  Master,  suffer  me  first  to  go  and  bury  my  father,"  may  say,  at  last 
"  I  will  follow  thee  though  my  father  and  my  mother  are  dead,  or 
dying ;  though  my  house  is  in  flames ;  though  my  friends  are  alien- 
ated; though  my  possessions  are  scattered.  Thou  art  the  chiefest 
among  ten  thousand,  and  altogetlier  lovely."  This  is  the  natural 
expression  in  the  supremest  moment  of  love.  There  is  nothing  on 
earth  that  can  compare  with  that  which  you  love,  and  that  to  Avhich 
you  submit  the  whole  obedience  and  enthusiasm  of  your  soul.  And 
if  the  love  be  supernal  and  divine,  and  take  hold  upon  the  majesty 
and  symmetry  and  infinite  excellence  of  God,  it  surely  Avill  ride 


466  GOD,  FIE8T. 

over  everytliing  else.  Allegiance  to  God  trrst,  and  then,  in  sweet 
and  transparent  beauty,  in  their  order  and  growth,  all  other  duties 
will  come  in  their  natural  place.  God  lead  you  to  make  the  right 
choice.    A77ien. 


PEAYER  BEFORE  THE   SERMON". 

We  bless  thee,  our  heavenly  Father,  for  thy  great  condescension.  For  all 
the  manifestations  which  thou  hast  made  of  thyself  in  nature,  we  thank 
thee.  Dim  are  our  eyes,  and  undisoeruing  our  hearts.  We  have  looked 
upon  the  way  of  nature,  and,  undirected,  we  can  behold  there  no  God. 
We  have  looked  upon  Ihy  way  of  providence,  and  clouds  and  darkness  have 
been  around  about  it.  And  we  are  glad  when  thou  dost  send  forth  an  iutei- 
preting  Friend  by  whose  life  and  disposition  we  are  permitted  to  learn  of 
thy  life  and  thy  disposition;  by  whose  words  we  learn  of  thee.  We  thank 
thee  for  Jesus,  the  Beloved,  who  is  to  us  in  thy  place  an  interpreter  of  thee; 
so  that  all  tlie  thoughts  which  we  compass  and  compress  under  thy  revered 
name  are  borrowed  or  quickened  of  him.  We  rejoice  that  we  are  permitted 
to  give  our  hearts  to  him;  that  it  is  not  idolatry  to  worship  him  by  love; 
that  we  withhold  nothing  from  thy  throne  whicli  we  confer  upon  his  heart; 
that  he  stands  for  thee  and  for  us;  and  that  in  him  we  meet,  Fatiier  and 
children.  And  we  pray  that  we  may  accept  the  blessedness  of  this  interpre- 
tation, the  joy  that  is  in  Christ,  witli  simple  faith  and  childlike  trust.  May 
we  look  to  him  for  direction.  May  we  know  what  is  the  spirit  of  Christ,  by 
which  we  are  to  become  like  him.  May  we  be  tauglit  to  move  from  day  to 
day  in  the  same  spirit  and  along  the  same  path,  knowing  that  thus  in  finding 
him  we  find  ourselves,  and  reach  our  true  manhood,  unknown  and  hidden 
from  us  in  him. 

We  thank  thee,  O  Lord  Jesus,  for  thy  faithfulness;  for  the  wonder  of 
thy  love,  which  spends  itself  in  supervising  such  a  globe  as  this,  with  such 
creatures  as  dwell  upon  it.  We  rejoice  that  thou  art  such  an  One,  and  that 
thy  being  runs  forth  from  sight  illimitable  and  incomprehensible.  Thou  art 
giving  thyself  forever  and  forever  for  thy  creatures.  Thou  art  the  ua wast- 
ing loaf;  and  all  the  universe  doth  feed  upon  thee.  Thou  art  the  liglit;  and 
all  the  universe  is  quickened  to  behold  and  to  travel  thitherward.  And 
though  there  is  much  that  we  cannot  compass  nor  understand,  werejtice 
that  we  leave  that  to  the  interpretation  of  a  future  experience.  We  rejoice 
that  all  that  concerns  us — our  strength,  our  growth,  our  duty,  our  triumph  in 
life,  our  triumph  over  death,  and  our  entrance  upon  immortality— is  made 
known  to  us.  May  we  be  like  little  children,  and  follow  the  voice  of  love, 
and  the  footsteps  v^hich  are  marked  out  for  us.  May  we  hear  thee  saying  to 
us,  to-day,  "  Come  unto  me,  and  I  will  give  tbee  rest."  But  may  we  also 
hear  thee  saying,  "Take  my  burden  and  my  yoke  upon  you."  May  we  not 
seek  thee  except  by  the  way  of  the  burden  and  of  the  yoke.  May  we  not 
seek  thee  a  Prince  and  a  Saviour,  except  by  the  cross  whereon  thou  wert 
glorified  in  sacrifice.  May  we  desire  lo  be  like  uato  thee,  and  to  live  in  that 
which  is  noblest,  and  purest,  and  truest,  and  best,  for  time  and  for  eternity. 
May  we  count  no  thorn  too  sliarp,  no  sorrow  too  deep,  no  tears  too  many, 
that  shall  lead  us  unto  this  higher  life,  and  keep  us  there. 

We  beseech  of  thee,  O  Lord,  thou  most  patient  One,  who  hast  borne  with 
us,  and  forgiven  us,  that  thou  wilt  still  bear  with  us  and  forgive  us.    We  :lo 


GOB,  FIRST.  4G7 

not  entreat  thee  as  though  thou  didst  need  to  be  entreated  to  forgive  our 
sins ;  for  thou  dost  forgive  us  out  of  thine  own  goodness.  And  our  very  ask- 
ing is  of  thee.  Thou  art  breathins-  into  us,  and  stirring  in  us  more  and  more 
a  generous  ^riih  for  perfection.  And  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  guide  every 
aspiration  which  thou  dost  excite.  Wilt  thou  grant  that  all  those  emotions 
and  all  those  choices  by  which  we  are  led  into  the  religious  life  may  be  con- 
served of  God.  Though,  as  we  pray  for  outward  protection  and  forprovi- 
deutial  mercies  from  day  to  day,  we  do  not  understand  how  to  pray  for 
them,  may  we  have  the  greater  blessing  of  the  Spirit,  the  inward  love,  the 
joy  of  thy  salvation,  the  realization  of  th3  invisible  power  and  might  of 
things  that  are  not. 

We  pray  that  thou  wilt,  this  morning,  draw  near  to  all  thy  people, 
according  to  the  several  circumstances  in  which  they  are  placed.  May  those 
who  come  rejoicing,  cheered  with  the  light  of  hope,  pour  out  their  thanks- 
giving before  God.  May  those  who  come  saddened  by  troubles  and  sorrows 
find  a  blessed  forgetfulness  hereof  sorrow,  in  the  communion  which  they 
are  permitted  to  hold  with  thee.  We  pray  that  burdens  may  be  laid  down 
here,  not  to  be  taken  up  again.  We  pray  that  men  may  partfrom  evil  here, 
never  again  to  embrace  it.  Here  may  our  souls  rise  into  such  communion 
with  thee  thatthe  fragrance  shallabide  with  us.  We  pray  (hat  thou  wilt  give 
strength  to  the  weak,  and  comfort  to  the  disconsolate,  and  courage  to  the 
depressed,  and  guidance  to  those  who  are  perplexed.  We  pray  that  thou 
wilt  give  heart-rest  to  those  who  have  heartache.  We  pray,  if  there  are  any 
who  are  friendless,  and  who  turn  every  whither  for  sympathy  and  find  it 
not,  that  thou  wilt  fill  their  hearts  full  of  God's  mercy  and  love  towards 
them ;  and  if  guilt  and  fear  rise  up  into  their  souls  and  cast  out  the  comfort 
of  believing  that  thou  dost  care  for  them,  grant  that  there  may  be  such  a 
predominant  vision  of  the  love  of  God  to  sinners  that  even  sinners  may 
dare  to  trust  thy  mercy  an;l  thy  love. 

We  pray  that  those  wlio  are  strangers  in  our  midst  in  a  strange  land  may 
find  here  the  joy  of  a  Christian  home.  May  this  day  be  to  them  as  the  Gate 
Beautiful  of  the  whole  week.  We  pray  that  thou  wilt  grant  unto  them,  and 
to  all  those  who  need  it,  this  day,  such  divine  grace  and  succor  that  their 
hearts  shall  cry  out  with  gratitude  and  with  confessions  of  thy  mercy.  Thus, 
Lord,  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  show  thyself  to  be  a  God  of  goodness  in  this 
great  co:igregation. 

We  commend  to  thee  those  who  cannot  speak  their  sorrows;  those  who 
have  a  hidden  life  of  trouble;  those  who  have  sorrows  which  spring  from 
germs  which  they  know  not  of.  We  commend  to  thee  all  who  are  in  want. 
Tlxou  that  didst  create  the  eye— canst  thou  not  see?  Thou  that  didst  create 
the  soul — canst  thou  not  understand  its  throbbings,  and  mute,  inarticulate 
wants?  We  commend  to  thy  mercy  and  love  all  thy  creatures.  Thou  that 
art  the  Father  of  fathers,  thou  that  hast  taught  the  mother  how  to  love,  thou 
from  whom  we  learned  all  that  we  understand  of  disinterested  love,  put  forth 
thine  arms  over  mea  every  wliesre.  As  the  light  and  as  the  seasons  embrace 
the  continents,  and  pour  out  warmth  upon  the  earth,  and  bring  a  summer 
of  joy  and  love  upon  ten  thousand  things,  so,  to-day,  uncover  thy  bosom, 
and  raajh  out  the  summjr  of  thy  heart  upoa  all  those  who  stand  around 
about  waiting  for  thy  coming  blessing.  And  we  pray  that  all  of  us  may 
rise  into  such  a  thought  oC  tiiee  that  God  shall  be  to  us  a  mountain  of 
strength,  a  tower,  a  refuge,  all  in  all. 

Bless  with  us  those  who  are  gathered  together  everywhere  to  worship 
thfe  to-day.  Strengthen  thy  servants  according  to  the  revelations  of  thy 
Spirit,  to  speak  the  word  of  truth.  Unite  tay  people  more  and  more.  Bind 
them  together  in  indivisible  bonds  of  love  and  trust.  Spread  out  over  thy 
sanctuaries  the  light  and  strength  of  thy  Spirit  everywhere. 


4()3  GOB,  FIBST. 

May  our  laTfs  and  institutions  be  purified.  May  our  magistrates  be  un- 
corrupt,  God-fearing  men.  Bless  tlie  President  of  these  United  States,  and 
those  that  are  associated  with  him  \\\  authority.  Give  them  thine  own  wis- 
dom. Lead  them  in  all  truth  and  lidelity.  And  remember  all  the  Governors 
of  the  States,  and  all  judges,  and  all  teachers,  and  all  those  who  labor  for 
the  welfare  of  others  in  obscure  and  humble  places. 

We  pray  for  all  crowned  heads,  that  kings  may  rule  wisely  and  deal 
iustly.  We  pray  for  all  the  governments  of  the  earth,  that  they  may  become 
ameliorated,  and  be  more  and  more  humane.  We  pray  for  the  people.  We 
pray  for  the  great  multitude  that  are  friendless,  and  neglected,  and  sunk, 
and  sinking,  and  that  have  no  hope  in  life,  and  little  of  the  life  that  is  to 
come. 

Stir  up  thyself,  O  Lord,  thou  God  of  all  our  mercies.  See  how  in  all  the 
earth  thou  hast  forgotten  to  be  gracious.  Shall  we  judge  thee  by  our  ignor- 
ance? We  know  not  the  mystery  of  thy  neglect,  nor  the  mystery  of  thy 
mercies  conferred;  but  we  pray,  O  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that  as  the  field  is  the 
world,  and  as  thou  didst  die  to  redeem  it,  we  may  see  the  steps  of  redemp- 
tion, and  the  witness  that  thou  hast  not  forgotten  those  who  seem  neglected 
and  outcast.  Bring  in,  at  last,  that  day  of  promise  when  all  shall  know  thee 
from  the  greatest  unto  the  least. 

And  to  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Spirit,  shall  be  immortal  praises. 
Amen. 


PEAYER  AFTER  THE  SERMON. 

Our  Father,  wilt  thou  bless  the  word  spoken.  Help  us  to  draw  out  of 
that  word  all  true  honey  as  from  the  honeycomb.  We  pray  that  thou  wilt 
help  us  to  fulfill  that  which  we  know  M.iy  we  not  linger  and  hover  over 
thoughts  of  right  and  duty  with  fond  desire  and  approval.  May  wo  be 
stirred  up  to  realization.  And  so  may  we  live  that  when  at  last  all  earthly 
scenes  shall  have  passed  away,  wo  shall  not  have  lived  in  vain.  May  we  have 
that  anchor  of  hope  which  eutereth  within  the  veil,  sure  and  steadfast.  And 
when  at  last  we  are  brought  home,  grant  that  it  may  be  in  that  stormless 
land,  in  that  sky  without  a  sun  and  yet  radiant,  where  thou  art,  and 
where  no  other  need  be,  for  teaching,  and  for  food,  and  for  joy.  And  to 
thy  name  shall  be  the  praise  forever  and  ever.    Amen. 


xxv.^ 

The  Burning  of  the  Books. 


THE  BURIING  OE  TIE  BOOKS. 


"  And  God  wrought  special  miracles  by  the  hands  of  Paul :  so  that  from 
his  body  were  brought  unto  the  sick  handkerchiefs  or  aprons,  and  the 
diseases  departed  from  them,  and  the  evil  spirits  went  out  of  them.  Then 
certain  of  the  vagabond  Jews  [the  wandering  Jews],  exorcists,  took  upoti 
them  to  call  over  them  which  had  evil  spirits  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus, 
saying.  We  adjure  you  by  Jesus  whom  PaiU.  preacheth."— Acts,  XIX.,  11-13. 


That  was  the  fashion  of  exorcism.  Some  peculiar  formula  of 
words  was  supposed  to  contain  in  it  a  power  which  could  not  be 
resisted  by  the  evil  spirits,  or  a  fascination  which  could  not  be  re- 
sisted by  good  spirits,  and  which  drew  them  to  tlie  service  of  him  who 
uttered  it.  It  wfis  very  natural,  therefore,  for  these  men  to  suppose 
that  Paul  was  only  another  mightier  exorcist  of  their  own  sort. 
When  they  saw  the  effect  which  followed  his  use  of  the  name  of 
Jesus,  they  thought  that  if  they  only  used  that  name  the  same  re- 
sults would  follow. 

"  And  there  were  seven  sons  of  one  Sceva,  a  Jew,  and  chief  of  the  priests, 
which  did  so." 

What  came  of  it,  you  will  see. 

"And  the  evil  spirit  answered  and  said,  Jesus  I  know  and  Paul  I  know; 
but  who  are  ye?  And  the  man  in  whom  the  evil  spirit  was  leaped  on  them, 
and  overcame  them,  and  prevailed  against  them,  so  that  they  fled  out  of 
that  house  naked  and  wounded.  And  this  was  known  to  all  the  Jews  and 
Greeks  also  dwelling  at  Ephesus  ;  and  fear  fell  on  them  all,  and  the  name 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  was  magnified." 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  there  was  an  intelligent  conviction 

in  respect  to  the  office,  or  the  blessings  which  attended  the  use  of 

the  name  of  Christ ;  and  this  heedless  and  wanton  use  of  Christ's 

name  as  a  mere  exorcism  was  rebuked.     The  apostles  stood  before 

the  great  mass  of  the  people  of  the  city  as  men  of  snpereminent 

influence  in  things  invisible. 

'•  And  many  that  believed  came,  and  confessed,  and  snowed  their  deeds. 
Many  of  them  also  which  used  curious  arts  brought  their  books  together, 
and  burned  them  before  all  men;  and  they  counted  the  price  of  them,  and 
found  it  fifty  thousand  pieces  of  silver.  So  mightily  grew  the  word  of  God 
and  prevailed." 

Sunday  Evening.  Feb.  25  1872.    Lesson  PsA.  n.    HyniDS,  (Plymouth  Collectron) 

No8.  S-ZS,  SIO,  600. 


472  THU  BUENING  OF  TEE  BOOKS. 

It  is  computed  that  tlie  books  were  worth,  according  to  this  esti- 
mate, not  far  from  nine  thousand  doHars  in  cur  currency. 

E]Dhesu3  was  a  Greek  colonial  city  of  no  mean  repute.  It  was 
the  very  head-quarters  of  what  may  be  called  the  black  art.  Mphesia 
Grammata  had  become  a  technical  phrase  to  signify  Ephesian 
letters,  or  books,  or  writings.  It  represented  all  that  kind  of  writing 
wiiich  had  to  do  with  amulets,  and  charms,  and  exorcisms,  and 
fortune-telling,  and  the  whole  round  and  range  of  that  pernicious 
but  very  fascinating  life. 

This  professional  life,  Avhich  consisted  in  the  interpretation  of 
dreams,  included  a  very  wide  field  for  superstition  and  for  deceit.  In 
all  ages  of  the  Avorld  men  have  been  very  curious  about  their 
dreams ;  and  in  all  communities  there  are  many  who  put  great  stress 
upon  them.  They  are  regarded  as  signs,  either  contrary  or  coinci- 
tl'ent,  as  the  case  may  be.  Tliere  are  multitudes  who  long  to  have 
them  interpreted  ;  and  it  is  a  thriving  profession  that  interprets 
them. 

Astrology  was  then  employed,  also,  as  an  instrument  of  fortune- 
telling.  Palm-searching,  ceromancy,  all  forms  of  telling  fortunes, 
prevailed. 

And  there  were  not  wanting  those  who  could,  or  who  pre-, 
tended  that  they  could,  pry  open  the  door  of  the  future,  and  tell 
them  what  there  was  there. 

This  art  embraced  all  manner  of  amulets,  and  the  construction 
of  them.  It  included  all  sorts  of  shapes,  forms,  and  the  meanings 
which  were  attached  to  them.  Sometimes  precious  metals  and  odor- 
ous substances  wei'e  employed.  All  writings  thq,t  Avere  meant  to  be 
Avorn  upon  the  body,  and  that  were  supposed  to  carry  in  them  a 
secret  magical  power,  were  included.  There  Avas  supposed  to  be 
infused  in  this  Avriting  a  force  which  Avas  an  effectual  preventive 
of  disease.  It  Avas  supposed  to  haA-e  the  ability  to  Avard  off  effectually 
all  surprises  and  all  disasters.  Men  bought  amulets,  and  bound 
them  about  them  Avlien  they  Avere  going  to  sea,  in  order  that  they 
might  not  be  shipwrecked.  Men,  Avhen  they  Avere  going  on  dan- 
gerous journeys,  bought  amulets  for  their  protection  from  robbers. 
Men  bought  amulets  and  carried  them  on  their  persons  in  order  that 
they  might  not  take  contagious  diseases.  They  were  employed  to 
keep  off  the  measles  and  such  like  diseases  from  children.  Men 
Avanted  them  for  every  such  purpose.  And  Avhere  there  is  a  Avant 
there  Avill  always  be  a  supply  in  the  market.  As  long  as  men  are 
superstitious  and  Avant  a  charm  Avhich  shall  deliver  them  from  all 
manner  of  evils,  there  Avill  be  those  Avho  Avill  furnish  it.  And  that 
city  Avas  the  head-quarters  of  this  kind  of  superstition  and  literature 
and  abomination. 


TSE  BURNING  OF  THE  BOOKS.  473 

No  one  needs  to  be  told  that  as  there  is  fascination  on  the  part 
of  the  dupes,  so  there  is  provocation  on  the  part  of  the  man  that 
manages  the  dupes,  to  deceive  them  for  his  own  good,  and  that  he 
kads  them  on  in  the  way  of  deception  as  long  as  he  can,  or  until  he 
accomplishes  his  object. 

In  all  ages  and  nations,  therefore,  there  has  been  this  profession. 
Among  the  Hebrews,  from  the  earliest  day,  witchcraft  and  the 
practice  of  the  arts  of  magic  were  crimes  against  the  State.  They 
were  treason  to  God,  and  they  were  punishable  Avith  death.  Yet, 
they  were  never  eradicated.  You  will  recollect  how  Saul,  when  he 
was  in  an  extremity,  sought  out  a  wizard — the  witch  of  Endor 
— who  seems  to  have  been  well  known  to  his  courtiers,  or  he  could 
not  so  easily  have  found  her  out. 

This  is  still  so;  for  although  persons  who  follow  this  profession 
are  disreputable,  multitudes  of  such  creatures  skulk  in  our  cities. 
There  are  not  only  the  seven  sons  of  Sceva — like  those  vagabond 
Jews — going  about  and  practicing  these  miserable  arts,  but  there  are 
seven  thousand,  and  ten  times  seven  thousand.  All  over  the  world 
there  are  still  men  of  this  class,  .who  play  upon  the  superstitions 
and  hopes  of  men,  and  dupe  them  to  their  own  profit  and  to  the 
victims'  harm. 

It  seems  that  a  kind  of  revival  of  religion  broke  out  among  this 
people.  You  cannot  imagine  a  people  so  little  likely  to  be  affected  by 
the  preaching  of  the  Gospel ;  and  it  does  not  seem  to  have  been  the 
ordinary  preaching  of  the  Gospel  that  did  affect  them.  They  were 
seized  Avith  conviction  through  their  own  methods,  and  on  their 
own  account. 

The  apostle  Paul  was  manifestly  looked  upon  as  of  superior 
authority  and  power ;  and  the  result  of  the  exalted  opinion  Avhich 
was  held  of  him  was  beneficent.  His  miracles  were  so  impressive 
that  men  attempted  to  imitate  them,  not  only,  but  that  Avhen  the 
attempt  brought  upon  these  pretenders  such  condign  punishment 
men  feared,  and  at  the  same  time  were  convicted  that  the  way  in 
which  they  had  lived  in  respect  to  these  very  things  was  a  pernic- 
ious and  guilty  Avay.  And  they  gathered  up  all  their  charms  and 
amulets,  all  their  secret  writings,  all  their  books  of  various  kinds, 
and  did  as  men  ought  always  to  do  Avhen  they  have  done  Avrong — 
went  and  publicly  confessed  their  Avrong.  One  of  them  came  to 
Paul,  saying,  "  Behold,  from  year  to  year  I  have  practiced  this  base 
business,  and  gained  much  money,  and  sinned;  and  I  confess  my 
guilt."  Another  came  and  said,  "  I  have  wallowed  in  licentious- 
ness,  and  have  lived  for  the  gratification  of  the  lowest  passions, 


474  TEE  BURNING  OF  THE  BOOKS. 

Vitliout  regard  to  the  Avelfare  of  other  men ;  and  I  confess."  An- 
other came,  and  made  confession.  The  confessing  spirit  became 
contagious.  And  all  that  confessed  brought  the  instruments  of 
their  wickedness  and  threw  them  down.  By  and  by  they  were  all 
heaped  up  in  an  open  place.  Then  the  torch  was  put  to  the 
mass,  and  it  was  burned  to  ashes. 

By  this  incremation  there  was  much  mischief  forestalled. 
There  Avas,  also,  in  this  overt  testimony  of  these  men,  a  committing 
of  themselves — a  renunciation  of  that  which  was  bad,  and  an  adhe- 
sion to  that  which  was  good — that  everybody  could  understand ;  and 
it  was  wholesome  to  those  who  beheld  it.  Their  example  was 
valuable  to  the  ensnared  common  people.  Although  it  is  impossible 
to  produce  by  mere  human  agency  great  effects;  yet,  when  a 
man's  soul  is  lifted  up,  and  kindled  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  it  is  com- 
petent to  produce  on  men  searching  and  cleansing  effects.  It  is  one 
thing  to  stimulate  men  ;  it  is  one  thing  to  arouse  men :  it  is  another 
thing  to  lead  men  from  a  lower  plane  to  a  higher,  and  to  commit 
them  there,  so  that  they  shall  grow  in  grace.  Growth  in  grace  is 
given  to  men  only  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  It  is  the  power  of  the  High- 
est, acting  through  the  human  soul,  that  gives  that  beneficent  in- 
fluence which  preaching  and  the  preacher  have  over  the  imagination 
and  the  reason  and  the  affections,  and,  subsequently,  over  the  life 
itself. 

This  open  renunciation,  and  this  burning  of  so  much  treasure, 
was  itself  not  only  an  evidence  of  sincerity,  but  a  powerful  testi- 
mony to  all  that  were  around  about.  After  all,  it  is  not  so  much 
what  Tciewfeel,  as  what  they  do,  that  affects  their  fellow-men.  It  is 
not  so  much  the  Gospel  adapted  to  the  thoughts  and  the  reason. 
There  is  many  a  man  who  is  not  competent  to  accept  the  Gospel  in 
its  higher  range  of  spiritual  truths;  there  is  many ^  man  who  be- 
holds the  transcendent  experience  Avhich  one  has  on  entering  the 
kingdom  of  the  Lord  Je&us  Christ  with  suspicion  and  with  doubt ; 
but  there  are  very  few  men  who  see  a  reformation  of  morals,  who 
see  a  man  going  against  the  grain  and  against  his  own  interests  for 
the  sake  of  doing  right,  that  they  are  not  convinced  that  he  has 
undergone  a  change  Avhich  is  worth  having. 

'  These  men  had  laid  aside  their  professional  instruments.  Every- 
body knew  that.  They  were  proud  of  their  power,  and  of  their 
Buccess;  and  yet  they  laid  aside  these  things.  They  gave  up  ail 
their  chance  of  gain.  They  discontinued  their  business.  They 
stopped,  in  a  moment,  the  inflowing  of  money  and  the  woi*ship 
of  those  who  paid  homage  to  them  ignorantly  and  superstitiously. 


TEE  BUBNU.G  OF  TEE  BOOKS.  475 

They  did  it  openly.  They  did  it  at  a  great  cost.  They  destroyed 
the  implements  by  which  they  had  been  gaining  their  livelihood. 

There  were  many  men  that  Avould  not  have  been  moved  by  the 
story  of  Christ  and  the  crucifixion,  Avho  were  brought  to  understand 
by  this  practical  example  the  regenerating  power  of  the  Spirit  as 
applied  to  men.  They  saw  that  these  men  who  had  been  through 
yarious  gradations  of  wickedness  had  been  lifted  into  a  realm  where 
they  confessed  their  sins,  and  owned  before  men  their  guilt,  their 
corruption,  their  wrong-doing. 

There  was  something  in  the  burning  of  these  books  that  was 
calculated  to  excite  men ;  that  was  calculated  to  stir  them  up  by  the 
roots,  as  it  were ;  to  tear  up  their  old  habits ;  to  give  them  a  new 
shame  that  made  them  ashamed  of  their  old  unshame.  In  this 
bringing  a  man  out  on  another  line  of  life,  and  causing  him  to  com- 
mit himself  before  all  mankind,  there  is  something  very  in- 
fluential; and  there  are  large  classes  of  people  of  little  cul- 
ture to  whom  it  is  about  the  only  Gospel  that  can  be  preached 
in  their  own  tongue.  Therefore  it  is,  that  it  is  not  enough 
when  a  man  is  converted  in  his  business,  for  him  to  creep  silently 
into  the  church,  and  to  say,  "  I  have  been  a  very  wicked  man  ;  I 
have  abandoned,  however,  all  my  wickedness ;  but  I  will  be  modest, 
and  not  say  anything  about  it."  When  a  man  abandons  a  notorious, 
wicked  life,  there  is  a  Gospel  in  confession. 

Have  you  been  a  hard  master?  Have  you  been  an  avaricious 
man  ?  Are  you  known  to  be  such?  Have  you  the  reputation  ot 
being  such?  And  do  you  think  that  the  grace  of  God  has  found 
you  ?  Do  you  think  that  hereafter  you  are  going  to  lead  a  different 
life  ?  And  do  you  say,  "  I  am  going  into  the  church,  and  men  shall 
see  by  my  example  that  I  am  a  changed  man  "  ?  It  is  better  that 
they  should  hear  it  from  your  own  lips,  and  see  it  corroborated 
afterward  in  your  life.     By  the  lips  you  are  to  confess. 

Two  things  God  requires  of  all  men.  Ong  is  that  they  shall 
forsake  sin.  The  other  is  that  Ihey  shall  openly  confess  that  they 
have  sinned.  The  Gospel  not  only  says  that  men  shall  reform,  if 
they  have  been  going  wrong,  but  that  they  shall  confess  their  wrong- 
doing. If  you  have  sinned  openly,  you  are  bound  to  make  con- 
fession of  your  sin  as  openly.  If  you  have  been  committed  on  the 
side  of  evil,  you  are  not  to  be  ashamed  that  you  are  now  committed 
on  the  side  of  good.  You  are  an  enemy  to  your  old  selves.  You 
are  bound  to  stand  up  and  condemn  your  past  sins  and  wicked 
courses.  You  are  bound  to  turn  your  back  upon  your  evil  habits. 
And  you  are  bound  to  do  it  openly. 

It  is  a  bad  thing  for  a  man  to  sneak  into  the  kingdom  of  God. 


•i  7  0'  TEU  B  UENING  OF  THE  BOOKS. 

A  man  who  has  served  Satan  witli  his  head  up,  ought  to  serve  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  Avith  an  open  face  and  with  his  head  up.  God 
deserves  as  much  at  your  hands  as  the  devil  does ;  and  an  openly 
wicked  man  who  has  renounced  his  wickedness  ought  to  let  his 
neighbors  know  it.  When  you  turn  away  from  that  whicli  is  bad  iu 
your  lives,  you  ought  not  to  be  ashamed  to  acknowledge  it  before  men. 
Tliis  sudden  turning  of  these  men  in  the  sight  of  the  apostle's 
miracles,  and  in  the  sight  of  the  history  of  these  seven  sons  of 
Sceva ;  this  sudden  revival  in  which  there  were  so  many  men  con- 
verted who  gave  evidence  of  their  reformation,  was  the  work  of  a 
luminous  hour,  an  hour  of  great  excitement,  and  an  hour,  as  some 
would  say,  perhaps,  of  great  precipitation.  There  are  many  men  in 
this  Avorld  who  are  afraid  of  excitement  when  it  is  an  excitement 
that  tends  upward.  I  have  very'  seldom  seen  a  man  who  was  afraid 
of  excitement  when  it  was  an  excitement  in  the  direction  of  pleas- 
ure. I  hear  very  few  cautions  on  that  subject.  I  seldom  see  men 
who  are  afraid  of  excitement  on  the  subject  of  money.  Ho  !  let  it 
be  known  that  there  is  a  chance  to  invest ;  let  it  be  known  that 
stocks  are  depressed  so  that  one  who  has  the  means  can  go  in  and 
buy  and  make  his  tens  or  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  in  a  few 
days,  and  men  spring,  and  rush,  and  are  wild,  and  almost  beside 
themselves  with  excitement ;  but  I  do  not  see  men  under  such  cir- 
cumstances holding  each  other  back,  and  saying,  "  Beware  of  excite- 
ment." I  never  see  men  who  are  afraid  of  the  excitement  of  getting 
rich  suddenly.  With  respect  to  all  those  things  which  go  to  the 
bettering  of  your  physical  condition,  men  believe  in  enthusiasms, 
and  say,  "  Strike  Avhile  the  iron  is  hot."  There  are  all  manner  of 
maxims  and  cautions  against  delay  where  there  is  a  chance  for  gain 
in  material  things.  But  when  it  comes  to  religious  life ;  when  an 
old  hoary  sinner  who  has  defied  the  Gospel  and  the  Spirit  of  God  for 
years  and  years,  is  caught  in  the  paroxysms  of  a  revival  of  religion, 
and  begins  to  manifest  excitement  in  all  manner  of  ways,  men  say  to 
him,  "  Now  my  friend,  do  not  go  too  fust.  Look  out,  or  you  will  be 
carried  away  by  excitement."  As  if  he  were  in  any  danger  on  that 
side  of  his  nature  !  The  man  walks  along  the  edge  of  a  precipice,  and 
nobody  says  a  word ;  but  when  he  walks  by  the  side  of  a  cliff,  men 
say,  "  Don't  tumble  up ;  beware — beware  !"  When  a  man  is  ex- 
cited in  Avorldliness  nobody  cautions  him  ;  but  when  a  man  is 
excited  in  the  direction  of  more  conscience,  more  love,  more  self- 
denial,  more  purity,  more  godliness,  people  take  hold  of  him,  and 
say,  "  Don't — clonH — don't!  That  is  dangerous  excitement."  As  if 
men  were  in  danger  of  being  over-pious  or  over-good  !  As  if  that 
were  the  besetting  sin  to  which  men  are  addicted! 


TEE  EVENING  OF  THE  BOOKS.  477 

I  tell  yon,  rnen  will  never  escape  from  their  thraldom  if  they  do 
not  take  heed  both  to  their  strong  hours  and  to  their  weak  hours. 
There  are  given  to  almost  everybody  luminous  hours.  We  go  on  for 
weeks,  sometimes  for  months,  and  perhaps  even  for  years,  without 
having  any  such  hours,  and  then,  we  do  not  know  why,  and  without 
having  prepared  ourselves  for  it,  on  the  going  down  of  the  sun  at  the 
close  of  some  summer  day,  as  we  sit,  Avhile  the  crickets  and  the 
grasshoppers  chirp,  and  the  evening  birds  sing,  a  strange  softening 
influence  all  at  once  comes  over  us,  and  we  enter  upon  a  new  train 
of  thought,  and  look  over  our  lives.  We  think  of  Avhat  we  were,  of 
what  we  have  become,  and  of  what  our  tendencies  are.  We  measure 
the  world  by  a  new  standard.  The  heavens  draw  near  to  us.  For 
the  time  being  our  grasp  on  lower  things  is  loosened,  and  we  are 
drawn  upward.  We  feel  all  the  impulses  of  a  better  manhood  in 
us.  We  lay  out  the  path  of  the  future  for  ourselves  with  almost 
prophetic  care.     Those  are  great  hours. 

When  the  shipmaster  has  been  driven  for  days,  and  for  days,  and 
for  days,  by  the  black  storm  that  hides  the  lieaA^en,  and  prevents  his 
taking  an  observation,  if  there  come  even  so  much  of  a  break  in  the 
clouds  that  he  can  see  the  sun  for  just  ten  minutes,  it  is  salvation  to 
him.  He  would  not  let  it  pass  for  all  the  world.  He  stands  waiting, 
and  waiting,  and  waiting,  with  his  instruments  all  ready,  for  an 
opportunity  to  get  an  observation,  that  he  may  know  where  he  is 
and  what  to  do. 

God  gives  us  royal  hours,  when  the  sun  comes  out,  and  we  can 
see  our  condition.  There  are  times  when  our  passions  and  appetites 
and  lusts,  when  all  our  selfish  and  degrading  propensities,  lie  still,  so 
that  our  better  nature  rises  into  the  ascendency.  There  come  open 
hours  when  God  lets  men  see  the  Sun  of  righteousness  so  that  they 
can  take  their  observation,  and  ascertain  where  they  are,  and  whicli 
way  they  are  going,  and  how  better  to  lay  their  course.  \  And  men 
who  do  not  give  heed  to  these  luminous  hours,  do  not  know  wliat  is 
for  their  own  good.  You  are  not  always  the  same.  No  man  is 
always  the  same.  Sometimes  the  strength  of  a  man's  life  is  in  his 
upper  feeling,  but  more  often  it  is  in  his  middle  or  lower  feeling?. 
Why  ?  Because  the  Avorld  gets  the  first  chance  at  you.  You  were 
animal  in  the  beginning.  The  great  basilar  instincts  are  strongest 
in  all  of  us.  Society  touches  us  on  a  lower  plane  more  frequently 
than  on  a  higher.  Care,  and  anxiety,  and  association,  and  sympathy, 
and  all  manner  of  influences  and  circumstances,  are  perpetually 
tending  to  keep  us  down.  But  now  and  then  tliere  comes  a  change. 
By  and  by  tlie  upper  faculties  rebound,  and  we  have,  as  it  were,  a 
rcpleniishment  of  divine  grace.    And  for  an  hour  we  have  an  insiglit 


478  TEE  BURNING  OF  THE  BOOKS. 

into  our  real  manliood — that  for  "wliicli  Christ  died,  and  which  is  to 
make  us  sons  of  God.  The  better  part  of  our  nature  rises  up,  and 
then  it  is  that  we  see  visions  that  are  worth  seeing,  and  dream 
dreams  that  are  worth  dreaming.  Then  it  is  that  we  feel  the  fall 
force  of  our  destiny.  Then  it  is  that  we  mourn  over  our  past  lives. 
Then  it  is  that  we  hold  out  feeble  and  imploring  hands  for  help  and 
succor.  Oh  !  if  men  knew  how  to  take  care  of  these  hours  as  those 
poor  Ephesians  and  wandeidng  Jews  did  who  gathered  up  their  in- 
struments of  mischief — their  amulets,  their  charms,  their  Avritings 
— and  burned  them,  how  much  better  it  would  be  for  them.  In 
these  hours  is  the  time  to  bring  all  such  things  and  burn  them. 
And  let  them  be  burned  quick  ;  for  the  hour  may  pass,  and  you 
may  have  another  mind. 

"  But,"  say  men,  "  ought  they  not  to  have  waited  a  little  ?"  No. 
The  probability  is  that  if  they  had  waited  till  the  morrow  there  would 
not  have  been  a  man  that  would  have  burned  a  book.  They  were 
wise  enough  to  take  advantage  of  the  impulse  to  reform  when  it  was 
on  them.  Never  lose  a  minute  in  taking  advantage  of  an  oppor- 
tunity to  act  in  the  direction  of  a  higher  good  or  a  nobler  manhood. 
Never  lose  a  minute  in  doing  right  when  the  right  way  is  presented 
to  you.  Second-thoughts  are  treasons  when  an  impulse  is  generous ; 
and  when  it  is  base,  cruel,  animal,  second-thoughts  are  angels  of 
salvation.  Never  act  off-hand  when  action  is  wrong ;  then  stop  and 
think  ;  but  never  fail  to  act  quick  when  it  is  right.  These  men 
acted  on  their  impulse  or  conviction  instantaneously. 

In  these  times  of  strength  and  luminosity  men  must  prepare 
for  the  other  kind  of  hours.  We  usually  run  between,  taking  a 
sort  of  middle  course  that  is  neuter — neither  masculine  nor  femin- 
ine ;  neither  pretty  good  nor  pretty  bad.  Men  break  into  sins 
which  thrall  them,  which  soil  them,  which  subject  them  to  trouble 
and  suffering,  in  weak  hours.  And  what  are  they?  Everybody  has 
his  hours  of  weakness.  Everybody  has  his  hours  when  it  seems  to 
him  as  though  the  broad  air  pushed  down  on  him,  and  pressed  him 
toward  wrong.  There  are  hours  of  weakness  in  temper.  There  are 
hours  of  weakness  in  respect  to  all  that  is  pure,  and  just,  and  true, 
and  good.  There  are  hours  when  it  seems  as  though  the  worst 
powers  of  the  air  had  full  dominion.  Many  men  have  it  impressed 
upon  them  strongly  that  it  is  an  irresistible  temptation  of  the  devil 
that  is  about  them  in  weak  hours.  The  vows  that  men  make  are 
often  broken  in  these  weak  hours.  In  these  Aveak  hours  it  is  that 
resistance  to  wrong,  which  has  been  going  on  from  week  to  week, 
and  from  month  to  month,  ceases,  and  the  soul  goes  over  into 
wronj?.     In  these  hours  of  Aveakness  it  is  that  all  the  reformations 


*  TEE  BUli2^ING  OF  TEE  BOOKS.  471) 

and  all  tlie  repentances  that  men  have  set  up,  and  in  -which  they 
have  made  considerable  progress,  is  whelmed  and  sAvept  away.  In 
these  hours  it  is  that  men  lay  up  for  themselves  the  fruit  of  sorrow. 
Then  it  is  that  the  passions  dominate.  -  Then  it  is  that  the  flesh 
triumphs.  Then  it  is  that  the  soul  is  in  prison.  Then  it  is  that 
Satan  is  in  us,  and  rides  there  triumphantly. 

Beware  of  these  weak  hours.  And  when  God  gives  you  hours 
of  clear  seeing  and  a  high  and  heavenly  aspiration,  see  to  it  that 
you  build  up  and  fortify  yourself,  so  that  when  weak  hours  come 
they  shall  not  be  able  to  sweep  you  aiway  from  the  fastenings  which 
you  have  employed.  Take  care  of  the  future  in  strong  hours,  and 
do  not  leave  yourself  to  be  carried  down  into  these  weak  hours 
without  a  levee  against  the  sea,  and  an  embankment  against  the 
freshet. 

After  these  men  had  gone  out  and  burned  their  books,  the 
temptations  to  go  back  into  a  godless  life  were  more  than  half  van- 
quished. Probably  that  bed  of  ashes  saved  many  and  many  a  one 
from  utter  destruction. 

Many  ^o-cq\\q(\.  prudent  men  would  doubtless  have  advised  differ- 
ently in  regard  to  these  Ephesian  converts.  Many  of  them  would 
have  said,  "  There  is  no  objection  to  your  leading  a  better  life ;  you 
ought  to  do  it ;  but  do  not  act  with  precipitancy.  Consider — con- 
sider." 

My  friends,  consideration  is  a  good  thing ;  but  if  I  were  in  a 
railway  car,  and  had  gone  over  a  cliff",  and  were  rolling  down,  and 
down,  and  down,  and  the  stove  had  begun  to  pour  its  coals  out,  and 
the  flames  were  beginning  to  take  hold  of  everything  that  was  com- 
bustible, and  I  saw  that  there  was  a  chance  to  get  out,  I  should  lose 
no  time  in  attempting  to  escape;  and  if  a  man  should  pull  me  by 
the  skirts,  and  say,  "  Consider,  my  friend,  consider,"  I  would  say, 
"  Let  me  get  out  first,  and  then  I  will  consider." 

Where  dangers  are  suddenly  brought  to  us,  there  is  a  sudden  in- 
spiration to  ward  them  off".  We  involuntary  start  back  from  a 
precipice  when  we  find  that  we  have  gone  too  near  it.  And  there 
ought  to  be  a  courage  that  shall  lead  us  to  strike  down  the  robber 
or  assassin  that  attacks  us  or  our  dear  ones.  And  when  such  a 
stress  is  upon  us,  there  is  no  time  for  consideration.  The  blow 
must  be  struck  at  once,  or  it  will  be  too  late. 

Suppose,  finding  your  dwelling  in  flames,  and  yourself  in  immi- 
nent danger  of  being  consumed  or  suffocated,  you  should  make 
haste  to  escape,  and  a  man  should  say  to  you,  "  It  is  all  right  to  be 
concerned  about  yourself,  but  consider."  Consider?  What!  when 
a  man  stands  under  an  avalanche,  and  hears  the  crash  coming  down. 


480  THE  BURNING  OF  THE  BOOKS.' 

and  runs  to  get  out  of  its  way,  and  some  one  says  to  him  "  Stop, 
consider,"  which  is  the  fool  under  the  circumstances  ? 

When  a  man  sees  that  there  is  danger  before  him,  and  that  he 
is  moving  toward  it,  there  is  an  instinct  of  self-preservation  which 
is  aroused,  and  which  should  not  be  disregarded.  And  there  is  a 
self-preserving  instinct  given  to  the  spirit  as  much  as  to  the  body. 
And  such  a  time  is  a  time,  not  for  consideration,  but  for  action. 
When  your  soul  is  in  danger,  flee.  Flee  for  your  life !  Do  not 
wait,  nor  even  look  back.  The  very  object  of  haste  is  to  rescue 
men  before  the  fascination  of  evil,  which  has  been  broken,  shall 
return. 

There  are  bays  along  rocky  coasts.  "Where  promontories  stretch 
out,  a  bay  runs  in.  When  the  tide  is  out,  it  is  charming  to  walk 
about  on  the  sand.  But  when  the  tide  comes  in  there  is  danger, 
unless  one  is  on  the  alert.  For  it  comes  stealing  in  almost  imper- 
ceptibly, and  often  shuts  off  the  promontories  long  before  it  rung 
up  into  the  bay.  And  if  a  man  is  amusing  himself  there  with  no 
heed  and  no  outlook,  the  insidious  tide,  which  comes  in  sweet  as 
the  blossoming  of  a  flower,  but  with  all  the  power  of  the  ocean  be- 
hind it,  will  overtake  him.  If  he  does  not  flee  before  the  promon- 
tories are  shut  off,  he  will  never  flee.  It  is  now  or  never  with 
him. 

There  is  many  and  many  a  man  hemmed  in  between  two  pro- 
montories which  invite  the  tide  and  the  ocean.  Now  is  your  time 
to  escape.  If  you  wait  till  the  tide  comes  in,  you  will  be  drowned. 
If  there  are  any  here  in  whom  the  tide  of  appetite,  or  the  tide  of 
passion,  or  the  tide  of  infatuation  for  gambling,  or  the  tide  of  cor- 
ruption, is  out,  now  is  the  time  for  you  to  flee.  Do  not  wait  for  it 
to  come  back  again.     Be  precipitate,  and  save  your  souls. 

"  But,"  say  these  prudent  men,  "  why  should  those  creatures 
have  wasted  all  this  valuable  property?  Why  should  not  those 
books,  Avhich  Avere  worth  nearly  ten  thousand  dollars — fifty  thou- 
sand pieces  of  silver — have  been  sold  in  the  interest  of  benevolence? 
Then  the  avails  might  have  been  taken  to  relieve  the  poor.  Or, 
they  might  have  been  employed  for  the  support  of  the  Gospel. 
They  might  have  been  devoted  to  sending  more  Pauls  out  preaching 
in  every  direction." 

Well,  has  a  man  a  right  to  put  upon  another  that  which  it  ia 
dangerous  for  him  to  keep  ?  What  would  you  think  of  a  reformed 
assassin  who  should  say,  "  I  have  no  use  any  longer  for  these  pistola 
and  daggers,  as  I  am  going  to  join  the  church  ;  so  I  will  sell  them 
to  some  other  assassin?"  For  the  sake  of  joining  the  church,  ho 
sells  his  tools  of  cruelty. 


\ 


THE  BURNING  OF  THE  BOOKS.  481 

What  would  you  think  of  a  reformed  poisoner  who  should  say, 
"  I  have  formed  the  purpose  of  living  a  life  of  morality,  and  I  am 
going  to  abandon  this  life  of  Avickcdness,  and  I  have  no  farther  use 
for  these  medicines ;  but  that  man  in  the  other  street  is  going  on 
in  the  same  business,  so  I  Avill  sell  them  to  him,  and  let  him  use 
them  "  ?     What  sort  of  reformation  would  that  be  ? 

A  man  says,  "I  have  been  selling  bad  liquor,  [that  is,  all  liquor!] 
but  I  find  that  I  am  destroying  men,  and  doing  much  harm,  and  I 
feel  that  I  ought  to  quit."  A  sense  of  eternity  is  aroused  in  him, 
and  he  says,  "  I  must  get  out  of  this  business.  But  there  is  a  thou- 
sand dollars'  worth  of  stock  down  cellar.  There  are  a  great  many 
barrels  of  wine  there,  made  according  to  the  best  recipes.  Besides, 
there  is  a  great  deal  of  cheap  whiskey  there  that  I  do  not  want  to 
waste.  Therefore,  I  will  just  sell  this  stock.  Then  I  will  join  the 
church."     You  laugh  at  it,  and  justly,  too. 

1  AVhat  would  you  think  of  a  gambler  that  had  reformed,  who 
for  the  sake  of  putting  money  in  his  pocket  should  sell  his  loaded 
dice  to  other  gamblers  that  had  not  reformed  ? 

j  My  friends,  there  is  an  influence  which  goes  out  from  a  man 
such  that  he  never  does  anything  that  he  does  not  leavo 
some  magnetism  in  it.  I  do  not  believe  that  a  man  builda 
a  house  without  putting  into  it  something  of  himself.  I  do 
not  believe  a  man  ever  wrote  a  sentence,  or  painted  a  picture, 
that  he  did  not  leave  much  of  himself  in  that  picture  or  sentence. 
No  good  painter  ever  painted  the  portrait  of  another  person  that 
he  did  not  leave  something  of  himself  in  that  portrait.  And  no 
man  uses  any  implement  that  he  does  not  put  something  of  himself 
into  that  implement.  There  is  Avhat  we  call  association.  There  is 
a  fascination  in  things  by  Avhich  we  have  sinned.  And  they  are 
dangerous  things  to  have  Ij'ing  about  you.  Places  where  you  have 
been  lured  and  snared  are  dangerous  places  for  you  to  go  into  Avhen 
you  are  reformed.  It  is  dangerous  for  you  to  mingle  with  the 
persons  with  whom  you  have  been  associated  in  sin,  and  who  re- 
main in  their  sins.  One  thing  is  certain,  that  when  a  man  is 
reformed  he  should  do  with  his  instruments  of  evil  what  is  done 
with  the  raiment  of  patients  who  have  died  in  hospital — burn  them. 
I  would  iiot  put  on  the  clothes  of  a  man  Avho  had  died  of  small* 
pox.  It  would  be  bad  business  and  poor  economy.  Whatever  "y Oil j- 
have  used  or  been  associated  Avith  in  sin,  cut  loose  from  and  destroy 
when  you  have  reformed,  for  the  sake  of  your  own  protection,  and 
the  protection  of  others.  Sinning  is  a  terrible  thing  when  once  it 
takes  hold  of  a  man,  and  comes  to  be  his  master,  and  the  power  of 
breaking  off  from  sin  is  very  much  diminished  by  the  presence 


482  TMi:  BUBNING  OF  TUB  BOOKS. 

of  those  tilings  wliicli  have  made  sin  ftxcile.  When,  therefore,  you 
enter  upon  a  new,  a  reformed,  a  moral  or  religions  life,  having  been 
living  in  the  commission  of  things  wrong,  do  not  make  any  com- 
promise with  implements,  companions  or  places.    Keep  away  from 

them. 
f 
S       "  The  prudent  man  foreseeth  the  evil,  and  hideth  himself;  but  the  simple 

pass  on,  and  are  punished." 

These  men,  therefore,  did  the  right  thing.  They  destroyed  so 
mnch  property,  to  be  sure;  but  what  was  it  worth  compared  with 
their  safety,  integrity,  and  Christian  manhood  ?  Can  a  man  be 
Aveighed  against  gold  ?  Yon  may  heap  gold  mountain  high,  but  it  is 
not  the  price  of  a  man.  The  gold  of  Ophir  or  the  golden  wedge  is 
not  to  be  mentioned  in  comparison  with  a  man.  Burning  was  the 
safest  thing.  When  a  man  repents  of  wrong-doing  and  sets  his  face 
in  the  right  direction,  he  ought  to  destroy  utterly  all  chance  of  re- 
tracing his  steps.  When  a  man  reforms,  he  ought  to  burn  all  the 
bridges  behind  him,  so  that  he  cannot  get  back.  He  will  need  all 
the  help  that  he  can  find.  When  you  first  begin  to  turn  from  evil 
to  good,  from  selfishness  to  benevolence,  from  carnality  to  spirit- 
uality ;  when  you  begin  to  turn  from  yourselves  to  God,  in  the  first 
moment  of  your  reformation,  it  seems  to  you  as  though  you  never 
could  be  tempted  again  ;  but  ah !  there  come  December  days.  There 
come  days  in  which  it  seems  as  though  Satan  was  tempting  you  on 
every  side.  There  come  days  when  men  are  ashamed  that  they  have 
been  duped,  as  they  say,  into  reformation.  Take  heed.  You  may 
be  destroyed  unless  you  are  fortified  beforehand.  I  warn  you. 
There  cannot  but  be  many  in  such  a  congregation  as  this  who  need 
to  hear  just  such  talk  as  I  am  addressing  to  you  this  evening.  There 
are  many  men  on  the  precipitous  edge  of  dangers  which  will  cer- 
tainly compass  their  destruction  if  they  do  not  change  their  course ; 
at  once. 

There  may  be  those  here  who  have  contemplated  some  wrong 
which  is  not  yet  committed;  there  may  be  those  who  have  laid 
plans  for  the  commission  of  some  robbery ;  there  may  be  those  who 
have  formed  the  intention  of  falsifying  some  document  or  perverting 
some  trust-fund ;  there  may  be  those  who  are  about  to  enter  the 
house  of  death  from  which,  if  men  go  in,  they  will  never  return,  or 
will  come  out  struck  through  with  deadly  poison  ;  and  if  you  would 
save  yourselves  from  the  fatal  "consequences  of  these  things,  you 
must  stop  right  where  you  are.  If  you  go  any  further,  the  proba- 
bility is  that  your  ruin  will  be  complete.  There  are  courses  that 
will  whelm  your  soul  in  destruction  here  and  hereafter,  and  these 
are  some  of  them. 


THE  BURNING  OF  THE  BOOKS.  483 

Oh,  my  friends,  let  the  Spirit  of  God  overshadow  you ;  and  if 
better  thoughts  have  been  impressed  on  you  while  I  have  been 
speaking,  do  not  let  one  hour  pass  without  fortifying  them.  AVe 
learned  in  the  last  war  that  it  was  Avise  not  to  go  to  battle  in  line 
if  we  could  help  it.  And  Avhenever  our  boys  camped  down  in  a 
place,  not  twenty  minutes  elapsed  before  they  had  throAvn  up  dirt, 
rails,  fences,  logs,  anything  for  a  bulwark,  or  a  breastwork,  to 
protect  them  from  the  fire  of  the  enemy. 

You  are  on  the  enemy's  ground.  You  need  some  breastwork 
"«  hicli  shall  resist  the  assault  of  your  adversaries,  and  behind  which 
you  will  be  safe.  Turn  to  your  companion  as  you  go  out  to-night, 
and  say,  "  Give  me  your  hand  on  this :  I  am  going  to  begin  a  new 
life."  Go  to  some  one  in  whom  you  have  confidence,  and  tell  him 
how  near  you  have  come  to  destruction,  and  say  to  him,  "  Indorse 
me."  Go  home  and  make  your  wife  a  partner  of  your  dangers, 
which  she  may  not  have  suspected.  And  above  all  things,  seek  the 
protection  of  God,  who  will  help  you  as  no  hum.an  being  can.  And 
commit  yourself  before  men.  Do  not  stand  dallying  and  parleying. 
Do  not  not  say,  "  If  I  succeed,  I  will  let  it  be  known."  Let  it  be 
known  that  you  mar/  succeed. 

Many  and  many  a  man  has  been  destroyed  with  utter  destruc- 
tion because  he  would  not  open  his  lips ;  though  he  might  have 
been  saved  when  he  was  tempted  beyond  his  strength  of  resistance, 
if  he  had  turned  round  and  said,  "  Oh,  my  God !  help  me  ;"  and  if 
he  had  sought  help  from  his  fellow-men.  When  a  man  is  in  peril 
and  extremity  of  temptation  he  needs  help.  There  is  no  power  in 
himself  that  can  save  him. 

You  poor  secret  drunkards ;  you  men  that  are  hiding  your  las- 
civious ways  ;  you  that  have  been  corrupted  with  the  damning  fas- 
cination of  gambling ;  you  whose  midnight,  if  it  could  talk,  Avould 
be  like  the  day  of  judgment — to  you  I  speak  to-night.  There  is  a 
time  coming  for  you.  There  is  a  bright  and  morning  star  rising 
over  the  horizon  of  your  darkness.  You  may  be  saved  from  death. 
Turn  to  somebody ;  open  your  mouth ;  confess  your  sin ;  flee  from 
danger  ;  and  be  redeemed  forever  and  forever.  God  will  be  glad  in 
the  gladness  of  your  souL  And  when  you  stand,  at  last,  among  the 
redeemed,  heaven  cannot  shudder,  but  you  will  look  back  with  a 
joy  that  trembles  to  see  how  near  jou  were  to  utter  destruction, 
but  how  by  the  grace  of  God  you  were  snatched  from  it,  and  saved 
with  an  everlasting  salvation. 


48  i  THE  BUBNING  OF  THE  BOOKS. 

PKAYER   BEFORE  THE   SERMON". 

Our  Father,  we  thank  thee  that  we  may  call  to  thee,  and  be  recognized 
by  thee.  Thou  art  our  Father,  and  we  are  thy  childre;!.  Though  we  are 
unworthy  to  draw  near  to  thee,  and  enter  into  personal  relations  and  associ- 
ations with  tbee,  yet  thou  art  fashioning  us  by  thy  providence  and  by  thy 
grace  for  that  future  meeting,  for  that  heavenly  home,  for  that  blessed 
estate,  to  which  we  aspire.  Through  darkness  and  through  light  we  press  on. 
Through  hopes  and  through  fears,  with  strength  and  with  weakness,  under 
temptations  and  in  victories,  cast  down  and  lif  te  J  up  again,  hoping  against 
hope,  full  of  courage,  through  all  vicis3itude3,  we  s  ill  press  forward.  And 
though  at  times  we  cannot  run;  though  at  times,  as  they  that  suddenly  are 
met  by  the  blasts  of  the  storm,  we  cannot  more  than  stand  and  hold  our 
own,  and  having  done  all,  stand;  yet  when  the  storm  abates,  we  press  on, 
always  forward,  always  for  somethiilfe  better — for  truer  and  better  lives;  al- 
ways aspiring,  not  accounting  ourselves  to  have  attained,  but  pressing  for- 
ward toward  the  mark  for  our  high  calling  in  Christ  Jesus. 

We  pray,  O  Lord  our  God,  that  thou  wilt  forgive  all  our  sinfulness. 
Pity  our  infirmity.  Help  our  weakness.  Cheer  our  despondency.  By  tho 
greatness  of  thy  love  and  help  may  all  our  weakness  be  filled  with  strength  ; 
and  by  the  grace  of  God  may  we  be  able  to  obtain  victories  la  every  hour, 
and  against  every  foe.  We  are  glad  that  we  live  in  thee,  and  by  thee.  It  is 
better  for  us  to  live  with  a  grateful  remembrance  of  thy  kindness,  than  to 
think  that  we  alone  achieve  our  victories.  We  rejoice  that  our  blessings  are 
from  thy  band,  and  that  they  are  not  only  blessings,  bur  tokens  of  thy  love; 
and  that  we  have  not  oaly  their  ministrations,  but  the  sweet  associations  of 
thy  care  and  fatherly  regard. 

lilay  we  look  upon  all  the  events  of  our  daily  life,  and  all  the  changes  of 
providence  around  about  us,  as  so  many  tokens  of  God's  thought  and  God's 
kindness ;  and  so  may  we  behold  thee  in  our  history  on  every  side  continuously. 
As  the  days  go  on,  as  that  part  of  our  existeuce  which  is  in  this  lite  stiortens, 
and  as  that  which  is  eternal  draws  near  to  us,  may  we  find  ourselves  more 
and  more  in  the  spirit  of  the  life  that  is  to  come. 

We  pray  for  all  those  who  are  under  temptations;  for  all  those  who  are 
controlled  thereby.  We  pray  for  those  who  from  day  to  day  go  through  tho 
ways  where  lurk  innumerable  adversaries.  Save  them  from  the  adder  that 
biteth.  Save  them  from  the  snares  w  aich  entangle.  Save  them  from  the 
fiery  adversary.  Save  them  from  fear.  Save  them  from  outrushing,  lion- 
like temptations  that  destroy.  Save  them  from  every  peril.  Thou  that  didst 
suffer  for  them;  thou  that  didst,  in  Gethsemane,  in  thine  own  anguish,  re- 
member them;  thouttial  didst  rescue  and  strengthen  them  in  the  dark  hour; 
thou  that  didst  send  ministering  angels  that  comforted"  them,  look  upon 
those  who  are  in  peril.  Forget  them  not.  Breathe  heavenly  strength  into 
their  souls.  Do  exceading  abundantly  more  for  them  than  we  can  ask  or 
think. 

We  pray,  O  Lord,  that  tbou  wilt  be  gracious  unto  all  those  who  have 
been  carried  away  captive.  Bring  back  thy  people  from  Babylon.  Bring 
them  again  info  the  lands  of  their  fathers. 

O,  tliat  thou  wouldst  op3n  hearts  long  sealed  to  the  truth !  O,  that  Ihou 
wouldst  break  the  light  of  fear  and  alarm  upon  many  that  sit  at  ease,  and 
feel  secure  in  times  of  danger!  We  pray  that  thou  wilt  stir  up  the  con- 
sciences of  men  who  are  living  in  sin  to  a  sense  of  their  guilt;  and  outof  fear 
and  trembling  guilt  may  there  go  fortfi  holy  vows,  resolutions,  reformations, 
and  purifications  of  life.  We  pray  that  thou  wilt  turn  back  from  wrong 
courses  many  who  seem  bent  npon  their  own  destruction.    Save  those  who 


THE  BURNING  OF  THE  BOOKS.  485 

are  in  the  beginnings  of  fatal  ways,  and  to  whose  lips  is  brought  that  decei)- 
tive  cup  at  the  bottom  of  which  is  deadly  poison. 

We  pray,  O  Lord  our  God,  that  mauy  may  be  rescued  from  evil;  that 
many  may  be  turned  back  from  vice ;  that  many  may  be  delivered  from  the 
BHare  of  the  tempter.  May  thy  name  be  glorified  in  thy  people.  May  they 
be  augmented  and  strengthened,  that  the  cause  of  truth  and  purity  and 
justice  among  men  may  be  carried  forward  to  a  blessed  consummation. 

We  pray,  O  Lord,  that  the  word  spoken  to-night  may  be  to  edification. 
Bless  us  in  our  songs  of  praise,  in  our  prayers,  and  in  our  desires  one  toward 
another.  Go  with  us  from  this  sacred  place;  and  may  the  Sabbath  go  with 
us  all  the  week,  a  convoying  and  overshadowing  cloud  when  the  sun  is 
fierce.  Grant  that  the  spirit  of  the  sanctuary  may  be  with  us  in  all  our 
lempta'ions  wherever  we  are.  May  we  see  with  the  clarity  of  the  light  of 
thy  truth.  And  when  we  shall  have  finished  our  earthly  life,  may  we  not 
be  imwilling  to  go  as  children  sent  for  to  come  home.  And  may  dying  be 
living  to  us.  And  beyond  may  we  rise  to  see  thee,  and  to  see  that  thou  hast 
encircled  those  wiio  have  gone  from  our  midst.  May  we  join  our  loved  ones 
in  heaven,  and  dwell  forever  with  the  Lord. 

And  to  thy  name  shall  be  the  praise,  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit,  forever- 
more.    Amen. 


PRAYEE  AFTER  THE  SERMON. 

Our  Father,  we  pray  that  thou  wilt  bless  the  word  which  has  been 
spoken.  How  many  have  perished  for  lack  of  vision  1  How  many  have 
been  lost  through  foolishness !  How  many  have  been  destroyei  by  reason 
of  weakness!  How  many  have  come  to  naught  from  ignorance  of  how  to 
save  themselvei  when  soul-sick,  and  heart-sick,  and  sick  unto  death  I  O, 
Saviour  of  sinners!  hast  thou  no  salvation  until  men  are  reformed  ?  Lord 
Jesus,  was  not  thy  hand  pierced  that  thou  mightest  succor  the  weak  and  the 
perishing?  Since  thou  didst  triumph  over  death,  is  there  anything  in  the 
lazar-house  of  death  that  thou  canst  not  cure?  Look  upon  the  imperiled. 
Look  upon  the  wandering  outcast.  Look  upon  the  secretly  corrupt  and 
wicked.  Look  upon  thy  needy  ones.  O,  thou  Father  of  mercy,  grant,  to- 
night, that  there  may  be  many  who  shall  stop,  and  stop  suddenly,  and  re- 
nounce openly  and  thoroughly  their  evil  ways,  and  begin  that  upward  life 
which  shall  never  end.  We  commend  to  thy  grace,  O  God,  in  Jesus  Christ, 
all  these  dying  men.  And  we  pray  for  the  outpouring  of  the  Holy  Gbost 
upon  them.  We  pray  for  the  confirmation  of  their  better  resolutions. 
Raise  up  about  them  those  who  shall  watch  for  them,  in  sympathy,  and 
prayer,  and  labor,  and  zeal,  and  love.  Be  with  those  that  need  these  heli>s. 
So  glorify  thyself,  and  so  save  men.  We  ask  it  through  riches  of  grace,  in 
Christ  Jesus  cur  Lord.    Amen. 


XXVI. 

Prayer  for  Others. 


INVOCATION. 

Our  Father,  we  thank  thee  for  the  morning.  The  night  is  gone,  the  day 
is  come ;  the  storm  is  blown  past ;  and  the  light  is  filling  all  the  earth  Avith 
gladnes?.  Thou  that  sittest  in  eternal  light,  and  in  the  unstormed  tranquil- 
ity of  the  heavenly  land,  reach  out  such  thoughts  of  thee,  and  inspire  in  us 
such  faith  and  lioly  vision,  that  we  may,  while  yet  in  darkness,  and  beaten 
upon,  behold  with  steadfast  vision,  evermore,  the  land  beyond  the  noise  and 
beyond  the  storm,  that  wc  may  be  the  children  of  light,  and  may  be,  even  in 
our  struggles,  victorious  over  all  ailments.  Bless  us,  this  morning,  in  the 
sanctuary  which  thou  hast  made  dear  to  us  by  ten  thousand  remembiances. 
Repeat  thy  mercies.  Draw  us  near  to  thee.  Fill  our  hearts  with  gladness, 
with  fellowship  one  toward  another,  and  with  holy  gratitude  toward  thee. 
Grant  that  we  may  worship  in  the  beauty  of  thy  holiness.  And  to  thy  name 
shall  be  the  praise  for  Christ's  sake.    Amen. 

26. 


PEAYEE  FOE  OTHEES. 


.  "I  exhort  therefore,  that,  first  of  all,  supplications,  prayers.  Interces- 
sions, and  giving  of  thanks,  be  made  for  all  men;  for  kings,  and  for  all  that 
are  in  authority  ;  that  we  may  lead  a  quiet  and  peaceable  life  in  all  godli- 
ness and  honesty."— I.  Tim.  II.,  1,  2. 


You  will  see  the  compass  of  the  apostle's  thought  of  prayer  in 
the  multiplication  of  terms.  "  Supplications,"  "prayers,"  "inter- 
cessions," "  giving  of  thanks" — these  are  all  phrases  which  cover 
the  ground  of  prayer.  Some  of  them  include  certain  elements  more 
emphatically  than  others  ;  but  taken  together  they  indicate  a  desire 
that  every  form  of  prayer  with  Avhich  one  may  be  exercised  should 
be  uttered  by  Christian  men  for  themselves.  For  then^selves  ?  Yes, 
surely — though  exhortation  to  that  Avas  scarcely  needed.  Not  only, 
however,  for  themselves,  but  for  all  men.  The  whole  word  of  God 
abounds  in  exhortations  to  prayer  in  our  own  behalf;  but  the  special 
command  or  exhortation  here,  is,  that  we  should  employ  every  form 
of  prayer,  not  for  ourselves,  but  for  others,  without  exception.  The 
only  classification  that  is  here  given  is  for  all  men,  and  all  those  who 
stand  exalted  above  the  ordinary  levelin  a  representative  character. 
This  classification  includes  the  whole  human  family — men  and  their 
officers,  kings,  magistrates,  all  in  authority.  Praying  thus  is  called 
intercessory  prayer,  or  interceding  in  behalf  ofot/iers.  We  have 
eminent  instances  of  it,  not  to  go  back  to  the  prophets,  in  the  ex- 
ample of  our  Lord — instances  which  are  recorded  of  prayer  by  him. 
We  find  that  in  the  most  affecting  of  those  instances  the  strength 
of  prayer  was  expended  in  asking  mercies,  not  for  himself,  but  for 
others. 

If  you  look  into  the  writings  of  his  disciples,  so  far  as  there  was 
an  authentic  record  of  them,  you  shall  find  that  they  were  accus- 
tomed to  pray  for  others,  and  to  exhort  their  fellow  men  to  do  the 
same.  This  stands  out  in  the  history  of  Paul  more  eminently  than 
in  that  of  any  of  the  other  apostles.  He  ceases  not  to  make  mention 
of  others  in  his  prayers.  In  every  single  one  of  his  letters,  almost, 
and  often  many  times  in  each,  he  takes  notice  of  his  habit  of  praying 

Sunday  Mop  M NO.  March  3, 1872.    Lesson  John  XVII.    IlyinDS,  (Plymouth  Colleo 
tlon) :  Nos.  255,  HI. 


490  PBArEB  FOB  OTEEES. 

for  those  whom  he  has  known — for  churches,  for  individuals,  for 
households,  for  friends.  His  life  seems  to  have  been  one  great 
breath  of  supiilication  or  intercession  for  all  toward  whom  his  heart 
yearned,  or  with  whom  he  had  labored. 

We  may  well  suppose  that  that  which  was  manifest  in  the  ex- 
ample of  the  Lord,  and  that  which  the  disciples,  doubtless,  took 
from  his  example,  was  eminently  acceptable  before  God.  We  are  apt 
to  leave  out  of  our  thought  in  prayer,  the  personality  of  God.  We 
are  apt  to  forget  that  he  acts  upon  the  same  general  laws,  though 
upon  a  higher  scale,  than  vre  do. 

If  men  come  to  us  asking  always  ignoble  things,  things  low 
down,  at  last  in  our  thoughts  Ave  stamp  them,  we  rank  them,  as  low. 
If  they  come  only  asking  for  bodily  relief,  and  always  in  the  same 
way  ;  if  they  come  asking  for  something  to  eat,  something  to  wear, 
and  nothing  else,  we  very  soon  call  them  beggars,  paupers.  If  they 
are  accustomed  to  go  a  step  higher,  and  come  to  us,  not  asking  for 
something  to  eat  or  to  wear,  but  giving  indication  that  they  have 
need  in  their  own  affections,  and  soliciting  from  us  some  counsel, 
some  advice,* some  comfort,  then  they  rise  in  our  estimation.  And 
if  they  ask  still  higher  things,  until  we  find  them  at  the  same  range 
of  thought  upon  which  we  are,  and  see  them  to  be  open  to  the  same 
influences  of  honor  and  manliness  which  impel  us,  Ave  feel  that  there 
is  a  kind  of  felloAvship  existing  betAveen  them  and  us.  The  things 
Avhich  men  think  of  Avlien  they  come  to  us,  and  which  they  Avant, 
determine  very  much  our  feelings  toAvard  them. 

Do  you  not  suppose  that  it  is  the  same  in  the  bosom  of  God  ?  If 
a  man  is  ahvays  praying  from  the  loAvest  plane  of  his  life,  from  his 
physical  Avant ;  if  he  forgets  all  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  except,  "  Give 
us  this  day  our  daily  bread,"  do  you  not  suppose  that  his  prayers 
rank  very  Ioav  ?  Or,  if  he  prays  from  fear  ;  if  he  prays  from  the 
loAver  forms  of  desire ;  if  he  prays  from  aspiration  ; — do  you  not  sup- 
pose that  the  level  of  his  prayer  is  recognized,  and  that  the  divine 
sympathy  bears  some  proportion  to  the  line  on  Avhich'  he  stands  ? 
If  a  man  approach  the  throne  of  grace  from  day  to  day  more  and 
more  praying  from  aspiration,  hungering  and  thirsting  after  right- 
eousness ;  nay,  if  he  approach  it  Avith  a  longing  for  felloAvship  Avith 
God;  nay,  if  he  go  to  God  forgetting  himself,  and  filled  Avith 
a  generous  ardor  for  others;  nay,  if  he  stand  on  that  very  plane 
Avhere  God  himself  lives,  saying,  "  It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to 
recei\'e,"  do  you  not  suppose  that  he  is  nearer  to  God  than  he  could 
possibly  be  Avhen  giving  utterance  to  the  loAver  forms  of  prayer  ? 

An  intercessory  prayer  is  a  prayer  of  genei-osity^ — a  prayer  of  un- 
selfishness.   We  are  permitted,  not  to  be  selfish,  but  to  have  selfness 


PBATEB  FOB  0THEB8.  491 

in  prayer ;  yet  if  persons  think  only  of  themselves,  and  of  them- 
selves in  their  lower  relations,  they  of  necessity  can  only  touch  the 
outer  part,  the  hem,  of  the  garment  of  God.  They  who  draw  near 
to  his  bosom,  they  Avho  enter  into  fellowship  with  him,  must  needs 
be  those  whose  minds  and  hearts  are  moving  in  the  same  direction 
that  his  mind  and  heart  move.  For  God's  thoughts  rank  men. 
Though  we  may  go  to  him  with  everything,  yet  our  habit  of  going 
will  determine  what  part  of  our  lives  we  are  living  in.  And  we  shall 
be  more  like  God  if  we  pray  generously  for  others  than  if  we  pray 
simply  for  ourselves.  Man/  people  fall  into  a  very  narrow  and  self- 
ish habit  of  prayer.  Without  doubt  they  would  obtain  more  for 
themselves,  and  would  go  away  bearing  ampler  blessings,  if  they 
could  only,  when  they  approach  the  throne  of  God  in  prayer,  intro- 
duce this  divine  element  of  sympathy  for  others. 

There  are  some  respects  in  which  we  may  be  benefited  by  a  con- 
sideration of  this  subject ;  and  it  will  bear  further  inspection  and 
examination. 

A  habit  of  praying  for  others,  as  I  have  already  said,  keeps  our 
minds  on  a  higher  plane  than  does  always  thinking  about  our  own 
selves.  It  is  true  that  our  primary  duties  are  to  our  own  house- 
holds ;  but  take  two  housekeepers,  one  of  whom  is  thinking 
kindly  of  all  her  friends  and  all  their  households,  who  is  discharging 
every  duty  toward  her  children,  and  toward  the  members  of  her  own 
family,  but  who  every  day  contrives  somehow  to  steal  an  hour  in 
which  she  can  go  out  on  some  errand  of  mercy —  and  another  one 
who  thinks  of  nobody  but  herself,  or  of  no  household  but  her  own, 
and  who  never  goes  forth  on  any  errand  of  mercy — betAveen  two  such 
persons  as  these,  is  there  not  a  very  marked  moral  difference  ?  Does 
not  the  public  sentiment  of  the  neighborhood  place  the  one  who  is 
thinking  of  others'  interests,  not  to  the  exclusion  of  her  own  duties 
at  home  but  in  addition  to  them,  upon  a  higher  plane  than  the  other 
who  thinks  only  of  herself  ?  Does  not  the  public  sentiment  regard 
her  as  the  nobler  character  of  the  two  ? 

So  it  is  throughout  the  sentient  universe.  The  things  which  are 
true  in  our  low  moral  appreciation  are  not  less  true  in  the  higher 
sphere,  but  more  gloriously  and  more  amply  true.  Praying  for 
others  increases  in  you  those  compassions  and  kindnesses  toward 
men  which  society  needs  in  every  part.  There  is  yet  much  rude  and 
savage  nature  left  among  men.  There  is  much  of  the  forest  and  the 
wilderness  yet  left  in  society.  Men  are  crowded  together  ;  they  are 
jostling  each  other;  they  are  treading  upon  each  other;  they  are 
snatching  from  each  other.  The  law  of  strength  and  the  laAV  of 
cunning,  which  is  the  law  of  the  wilderrnsss,  is  yet  strong  among 


492  PEAYEB  FOB  OTHERS. 

us.  We  are  accustomed  to  look  upon  men  in  the  great  strifes  and 
struggles  of  human  society  Avith  indifference.  We  think  of  them 
as  "  the  crowd."  We  speak  of  tliem  as  "  the  mass/'  "  tlie  rabble/' 
or  "  the  common  people."  We  think  of  them  as  we  do  of  flocks  of 
birds,  without  individualizing  them  ;  without  specializing  their 
wants  and  temptations  and  trials  ;  without  bringing  ourselves  into 
personal  relations  with  them.  They  are  mere  animated  facts  before 
us.  We  look  upon  the  great  mass  of  people  Avho  are  coming  and 
going  before  us  merely  as  "  a  crowd."  When  you  stand  at  the  ferr}^, 
and  look  through  and  see  twelve  hundred  people  pouring  off  from 
the  boat  at  evening,  what  do  you  think  of  them  ?  You  think  of 
them  as  "  twelve  hundred  people."  You  say,  "  How  they  weigh 
down  the  boat !  What  a  mass  of  men  !  How  much  this  Company 
must  make ! "  You  stand  and  look  upon  men,  women  and  cliildren, 
every  soul  of  whom  has  a  great  drama  playing  in  his  nature — bur- 
dens, sorrows,  fears,  anxieties,  sympathies,  all  that  goes  to  make  up 
humanity — every  one  of  whom  bears  a  ticket  for  eternity,  and  you 
say,  "  What  a  crowd !"  Or,  if  you  individualize  them  at  all,  it  is 
largely  by  the  question  as  to  Avho  is  handsome,  and  who  is  not  hand- 
some ;  or,  who  is  well  dressed,  and  who  is  plainly  dressed  ;  or,  Avho 
belong  to  the  upper  circles,  and  who  to  the  lower  classes.  All  that 
God  sees  in  this '  mass  of  men  we  are  apt,  by  reason  of  the  films 
which  society  puts  upon  our  eyes,  to  lose  sight  of.  We  fail  to  see 
the  manhood  in  the  masses  of  human  beings. 

It  is  a  bad  thing  for  men  to  live,  and  grow  up,  and  call  them- 
selves Christians,  and  form  the  habit  of  looking  at  the  great  mass  of 
men  and  seeing  nothing  in  them  but  their  physical  constitution 
and  external  relations.  And  the  habit  of  praying  for  men  brings 
back  the  manhood  to  your  thought  and  sympathy  and  heart  in  such 
a  way  as  to  lead  you  to  imagine  their  history,  and  to  feel  for  them 
with  a  true-hearted  interest. 

As  we  look  at  men  without  individualizing  them,  we  are  apt  to 
think  of  them  as  so  many  forces  without  attributes.  AVe  see  them 
working,  delving,  earning,  achieving.  They  are  to  us  very  much 
like  rains,  like  winds,  like  laws  of  nature.  Tliey  are  like  machines, 
going  up  and  down  through  life.  They  are  these  things ;  but  these 
things  are  the  very  lowest  parts  of  what  they  are.  And  it  is  not  be- 
coming in  Christian  men  whose  horizon  has  been  enlarged  and  illu- 
minated by  the  revelation  of  the  life  beyond,  to  look  only  thus  upon 
their  fellow  men. 

We  are  apt  to  imbibe  even  contempt  for  men,  by  seeing  the 
vulcrar  side  of  human  life,  Tluxt  side  we  cannot  hide.  In  the  im- 
perfections  of  men,  in  their  manifold  failings,  it  is  impossible  but 


PEATUB  FOB  OTHERS.  498 

tliat  we  siiould  see  much  that  is  rude,  much  that  is  unlovely.  And 
the  sight  is  a  bad  one  because  it  hardens  the  heart. 

It  is  dangerous  to  look  upon  the  weak  side  of  men.  Anything 
is  dangerous  to  your  manhood  which  takes  your  sympathy  aAvay 
from  your  fellow  men,  and  makes  your  heart  hard  toward  them.  It 
is  very  difficult  for  one  to  have  a  keen  sense  of  right  and  wrong,  a 
high  appreciation  of  what  is  pure  and  good,  a  full  understanding  of 
what  is  true,  and  simple,  and  genuine,  and  sincere,  and  then  go  out 
amon^  men,  and  see  how  many  disguises  they  wear,  how  much  de- 
ception they  practice,  how  much  hypocrisy,  conscious  or  unconsci- 
ous, there  is  about  them,  how  much  they  are  tangling  themselves 
up  with  falsenesses,  how  much  is  superficial,  how  much  is  the  result 
of  fashion  or  custom,  how  much  is  upheld  by  law  and  public  senti- 
ment, and  how  little  by  their  own  rectitude,  how  poor,  meager,  low, 
shallow  the  common  people  are,  and  how  vulgar  and  sinful  much  of 
life  is. 

This  is  especially  true  of  those  who  are  accustomed  to  see  men 
under  pressure  of  temptation,  under  the  influence  of  their  passions, 
or  in  their  hours  of  weakness  and  trouble.  It  is  not  possible  for  a 
man  to  be  much  among  men,  and  see  all  their  infelicities,  Avithout, 
I  had  almost  said,  having  a  misanthropic  spirit  bred  in  him,  unless 
he  sees  tiiem  as  a  physician  sees  men  that  are  sick.  A  physician 
does  not  despise  men  because  he  sees  tliem  diseased  and  ghastly  and 
loathsome.  He  goes  to  them  with  a  spirit  of  humanity.  He  goes 
to  heal  them.  He  sympathizes  with  their  suffering  and  pain.  And 
when  he  has  healed  them,  and  their  past  weakness  has  given  place 
to  present  strength,  he  rejoices  over  their  health. 

What  we  need  is  to  have  such  sympathy  Avith  men  that  every 
day  we  shall  carry  their  cases  before  God,  and  look  at  their  vulgari- 
ties in  the  light  of  God's  pity,  and  not  in  the  light  of  our  own  con- 
tempt and  cynical  criticism.  We  are  apt  to  look  at  men  who  are 
unfortunate  in  life,  and  who  look  to  us  for  sympathy  and  lielp,  as 
running  at  right  angles  to  the  path  of  our  interest.  AYe  are  apt  to 
regard  those  whom  we  meet  in  the  conflicts  of  business,  and  whose 
affairs  tend  somewhat  to  interrupt  the  even  flow  of  ours,  as  our  ene- 
mies. Those  who  do  not  damage  our  thrift  or  lessen  our  chances, 
we  are  apt  to  look  good-naturedly  upon ;  but  those  who  do,  we  are 
apt  to  look  critically,  and  even  severely,  upon.  We  make  our  oavh 
selfish  interests,  unconsciously,  it  may  be,  the  judgment-throne,  the 
judge's  bench ;  and  we  sit  upon  that  as  upon  a  chair  of  justice,  to 
determine  what  men  are.  We  try  them  and  condemn  them.  Faults 
which  in  our  children  Ave  consider  excusable,  in  our  rivals  Ave  treat 
as  unforgivable.    We  look  upon  those  Avho  are  bad  in  spots,  Avho 


494     ■  JPBAYmi  FOE  OTHERS. 

have  faults  here  and  there,  but  who  speak  well  of  us,  and  play  npon 
our  love  of  praise  and  self-conceit,  as  on  the  whole  a  good  deal  bet- 
ter than  common  men.  We  say  of  them,  "  They  may  have  some 
imperfections;  but,  after  all,  they  are  very  excellent  fellows.  There 
are  a  great  many  good  things  about  them."  We  speak  of  them  in  a 
general  excusatory  tone.  Whereas,  the  men  who  lie  close  upon  us, 
and  seem  to  be  dividing  the  spoils  with  us — how  critically  do  we 
look  upon  them !  How  sharp  are  we  in  our  observations  concerning 
them !     How  severe  are  we  in  our  strictures  upon  them ! 

Now,  if  we  were  accustopied  to  take  these  men  out  of  their 
strifes,  and  then  look  at  them ;  if  we  were  accustomed  to  look  at 
them,  not  in  those  of  their  relations  where  our  selfishness  goes,  but 
in  their  larger  relations ;  if  we  thought  of  them  as  having  the  heart- 
ache as  we  have  it;  if  when  we  saw  them  doing  wrong  in  life,  in- 
stead of  denouncing  them,  we  asked,  "  Who  were  their  father  and 
mother?  What  chance  had  they  when  they  started  in  life?  Why 
are  they  distorted  thus?"  if  we  knew  their  history,  we  should  have 
more  reason  for  pitying  than  for  blaming  them. 

A  man  in  his  business  relations  is  stingy  and  grasping ;  and  he 
seems  to  you  unlovely  and  hateful.  But  you  do  not  know  what 
that  love  may  be  at  home  which  is  inspiring  him  to  such  intense 
industry  and  such  closeness.  You  do  not  see  the  strife  that  is  going 
on  within  him  to  make  him  what  he  is. 

Is  it  not  better,  therefore,  that  we  should  measure  those  about 
us,  whether  they  be  rivals  or  companions,  as  God  does,  than  that  we 
should  measure  them  as  men  do — and  that,  too,  in  their  lowest 
moods  of  mind  ?  As  there  are  none  so  good  that  they  are  without 
faults,  so  there  are  none  so  bad  that  they  are  without  excellencies. 
The  low  are  not  so  low,  and  the  high  are  not  so  high,  as  we  are  apt 
to  think.  At  any  rate,  if  instead  of  indulging  in  suspicions,  and 
envyings,  and  jealousies,  and  raillery  toward  men  whom  we  meet  as 
physical  forces  in  life,  we  took  them  and  lifted  them  up  into  a 
calmer  atmosphere,  and  looked  at  them  as  immortal  beings,  and 
prayed  for  them,  it  would  exalt  our  appreciation  of  humanity,  and 
take  away  that  canker  and  rust  which  we  are  apt  to  see  upon  them 
when  we  only  see  their  wicked  dispc  sitions  as  they  are  exhibited  in 
the  toils  and  vexations  of  life. 

We  see  the  mistakes  of  men  ;  we  see  their  insincerities  ;  we  see 
their  sins  (for  who  is  there  that  has  not  sins  ?) ;  and  we  despise 
and  hate  them.  So,  often,  we  throw  ourselves  into  a  more  wicked 
state  of  mind  than  they  are  in,  whom  we  hate.  It  is  possible  for  a 
man  to  despise  a  thief  with  a  despising  that  is  wickeder  in  the  sight 
of  God  than  the  stealing  is  in  the  thief.     It  is  possible  for  you  to 


PEAYEB  FOR  OTHERS.  495 

look  upon  an  outcast  with  a  spirit  of  cold  reprehension,  with  a 
spirit  of  revulsion,  and  of  horror,  that  God  will  condemn  as  a  higher 
misdemeanor,  morally,  than  the  course  that  you  despise. 

It  was  this  very  hating  of  men  on  account  of  their  ignorance  and 
faults  that  brought  out  Christ's  terrible  denunciations  against  the 
Scribes  and  Pharisees.  It  was  not  because  they  had  all  the  faults 
that  common  men  were  subject  to ;  it  was  because,  in  their  elevation 
above  their  fellow  men,  in  their  intellectual  superiority,  and  in  their 
high  moral  state,  they  cut  themselves  loose  from  their  fellow  men, 
and  did  not  care  for  them.  It  was  because  they  abhorred  men's 
weaknesses  and  sins  in  such  a  way  that  men  were  substantially  cut 
out  from  the  sphere  of  their  sympathy.  Nothing  can  be  more  wicked 
than  this.  It  may  not  be  in  our  power  to  succor  men.  It  may 
not  be  safe  to  throAV  our  households  open  to  them.  It  may  be  that 
this  or  that  reason  will  practically  limit  our  ability  to  reach  them. 
But  there  is  no  man  that  can  take  up  his  fellow  men  wherever  he 
can  find  them,  in  a  spirit  of  prayer  before  God,  without  having  an 
enlarged  and  better  thought  of  them. 

If,  as  we  walked  the  street,  we  had  prayers,  winged  desires,  that 
we  could  fit  to  every  man  we  met,  we  should  very  soon  feel  a  dif- 
ference in  our  habit  of  looking  upon  men.  This  has  sometimes  been 
carried  to  a  ludicrous  extent,  as  where  Cotton  Mather  says,  "When 
I  see  a  tall  man,  I  say, '  God  grant  that  he  may  be  tall  in  grace,'  and 
when  I  see  a  short  man,  I  say,  '  God  grant  that  his  faults  may  be  as 
short  as  his  stature.'  "  You  may  carry  it  to  the  extreme,  and  spoil 
the  thought ;  but  it  would  be  a  gracious  thing  if  we  could  clothe 
men  in  some  such  way  with  kind  wishes. 

How  beautiful  it  is  to  relieve  the  troubles  of  men,  to  heal  their 
sorrows,  to  cleanse  their  defilements,  to  build  up  their  households, 
by  external  means!  but  if  we  cannot  do  that,  how  beautiful  still 
is  it  to  seek  the  promotion  of  their  welfare  by  prayers  and  yearn- 
ings in  their  behalf !  How  it  would  enlarge  the  bountifulness  of  our 
selfish  natures  if  we  prayed  for  men  whenever  we  saw  that  they  were 
in  need ;  if,  for  instance,  when  a  man  passed  by  us  who  we  saw  was 
proud,  we  should  make  supplication  that  God  would  give  him  the 
jewel  of  humility ;  or  if,  seeing  that  he  was  insincere,  we  should  pray 
that  God  Avould  open  the  light  of  truth  to  him !  How  much  better 
would  it  be,  if,  having  a  sense  of  men's  infirmities,  we  had  a  feeling 
of  pitifulness  and  yearning  toward  them  !  How  much  better  would 
it  be  for  them  and  for  you  i^you  Avere  in  the  habit  of  praying  for  all 
men. 

Much  is  said  about  the  "  fellowship  of  the  saints."  How  little 
fellowship  there  is!    "We  live  in  life  very  much  as  men  do  in  prisons. 


496  PBAYEE  FOE  OTHERS. 

where  each  is  confined  in  his  own  cell,  and  is  separated  from  all  those 
around  about  him  by  a  stone  wall.  He  may,  by  certain  signs,  by 
rappings  upon  the  wall,  communicate  a  little  with  his  fellow  prison- 
ers ;  but  how  much  can  men  learn  of  the  thoughts  and  feelings  of 
others  in  that  way  ?  There  are  histories  going  on  in  human  souls 
which  angels  behold,  but  of  which  men  are  not  spectators.  Every 
man  is  subject  to  inward  trials  and  struggles  of  which  his  fel- 
low men  know  little  or  nothing.  What  unwritten  histories  have 
men,  of  which  we  are  ignorant !  How  much  God  sees  in  men,  that 
is  hidden  from  us !  And  how  much  more  humane  should  they  be 
toward  their  fellow  men  who  have  risen  to  a  contemplation  of  them 
from  the  stand-point  of  their  merciful  Judge — their  loving  Saviour ! 
The  habit  of  praying  for  men  tends,  also,  to  increase  our 
patience  and  our  tender  helpfulness  toward  them,  and  prepares 
US  for  just  thoughts  concerning  them.  It  is  a  matter  which 
it  seems  to  me  none  of  us  enough  insist  upon — the  justice  not 
only  of  our  language,  but  of  our  thoughts.  There  is  many  a 
man  who  would  not  smite  his  neighbor  with  his  fist,  but  who 
smites  him  unmercifully  with  his  thoughts.  There  is  many  a 
man  who  would  not  pierce  a  felloAV  man  with  an  instrument  in 
his  hand  for  all  the  world,  but  who  does  not  hesitate  to  pierce 
him  and  wound  him  to  the  very  quick  with  his  thoughts.  There 
are  many  of  us  who  Avould  not  on  any  account  let  a  secret  be 
torn  from  our  lips  concerning  another,  but  who  inwardly  slander 
that  other,  judging  him  severely,  remorselessly.  In  the  court-room 
of  our  own  secret  souls,  we  condemn  men  unheard.  We  argue  their 
case,  and  they  have  no  chance  to  make  plea  in  return.  We  sit  there 
to  accuse  them,  and  make  our  accusation,  and  reason  upon  it;  and 
if  there  be  any  pleading,  our  vanity,  our  pride,  our  interest  leads  us 
to  plead  against  them.  And  there  is  no  one  to  answer  in  their  be- 
half. A  great  soul,  methinks,  should  be  more  careful  of  his  thoughts 
than  of  his  actions;  for  laws,  customs,  institutions,  for  the  most 
part,  help  us  to  take  care  of  our  actions  toward  our  fellow  men. 
Our  language,  the  outward  registration  of  what  we  think  and  feel, 
is  very  much  under  the  control  of  the  influences  which  surround 
us.  And  if  we  are  Christian  men,  we  will  see  to  it  that  that  inside^ 
silent  hall  of  judgment,  the  soul,  is  regulated  according  to  the  most 
scrupulous  honor,  and  conscience,  and  manhood,  and  sympathy. 
Nor  do  I  know  of  any  other  way  in  which  this  can  be  so  well  done 
as  by  the  habit  of  praying  for  others.  Now  we  grumble  at  men ;  we 
find  fault  with  them  ;  we  complain  of  them  ;  we  are  forever  seeing 
where  they  do  not  fit,  and  caring  very  little  where  they  do.  How 
much  better  would  it  be  for  them  and  for  ns  if  it  were  our  practice. 


PBAYEB  FOB  0TEEB8.  497 

on  noticing  in  them  some  defect,  to  lift  our  thought  to  their  immor- 
taUty ;  if  we  were  to  see  them  as  they  are  to  he ;  if  we  were  to  imag- 
ine them  cleansed  from  their  faults ;  if  we  were  to  look  upon  them 
as  they  will  stand  in  our  Fatlier's  house ;  if  we  were  to  recognize 
them  as  our  immortal  brethren !  There  would  not  he  so  much  need 
of  homilies  and  sermons  on  charity  if  we  were  in  the  habit  of  pray- 
ing for  all  men,  with  "  supplications,  prayers,  intercessions,  and  giv- 
ing of  thanks." 

Having,  then,  considered  the  duty,  more  particularly,  of  praying 
for  all  men,  let  us  specialize.  We  naturally  pray  for  our  children 
first.  We  remember  them  in  our  family  prayer.  And  how  much 
better  it  is,  in  praying  for  them,  to  follow  out  the  line  of  their  dis- 
position, and,  as  it  were,  to  bathe  our  affection  for  them  in  the 
heavenly  atmosphere  !  How  much  more  beautiful  they  will  be  to 
us  !  How  much  dearer  our  attachment  to  them  will  be!  How 
much  .finer  and  smoother  will  be  the  thread  which  binds  our  hearts 
to  them  !  How  much  nobler  our  hope  respecting  them  will  be  ! 
How  much  larger  will  be  the  sphere  in  Avhich  they  live  in  connection 
with  us  !  If  we  are  accustomed  from  day  to  day  to  bear  our  chil- 
dren in  prayer  to  God,  there  is  nothing  that  can  equal  in  richness 
the  love  with  which  we  cherish  them. 

!  In  this  matter,  we  limit  very  much  the  uses  of  prayer,  if  we  pray 
simply  that  God  will  convert  our  children.  The  desire  is  a  very 
noble  one  ;  but,  after  all,  the  things  which  are  flowing  out  from  our 
children's  minds  day  by  day — their  fancies  ;  their  budding  imagina- 
tions ;  tlieir  incipient  reasonings  ;  tlieir  dull  moral  sense,  or  their 
acute  moral  sense ;  all  the  things  which  make  them  special  as  related 
to  others  ;  their  characteristics — these  may  well  be  brought,  as  sub- 
jects of  either  supplication  or  tlianksgiving,  before  their  God,  and  our 
God. 

'  And  how  dear  to  us  will  our  children  seem  when  we  shall  from 
day  to  day  have  brought  them  into  God's  presence,  that  he  may  look 
upon  them — when  we  shall  have  gone  back  to  his  house,  as  it  were, 
with  our  children  ! 

One  of  the  most  interesting  and  memorable  experiences  of  life  is 
Been  when  the  child  has  gone  away  from  his  father's  house,  and  has 
instituted  a  family  of  his  own,  and  is  blessed  with  children,  and 
for  the  first  time  goes  back  to  his  father  and  mother  with  those  chil- 
dren. No  poem  has  ever  told  what  the  heart  says  then.  No  picture 
has  ever  drawn  out  what  takes  place  then.  No  philosophy  has  ever 
analyzed  that  inside  history.  Ten  millions  have  felt  it,  but  none 
have  been  able  to  express  it.    Only  prayer  can  do  that. 

Whsn  we  go  back  to  our  Heavenly  Father,  once  and  often,  with 


498  FBAYEB  FOB  OTHEBS. 

our  children  in  the  highest  relations  which  are  possible,  how  sacred 
and  beautiful  they  become  ! 

Then  I  think  we  ought  to  pray  for  our  associates  and  our  friends, 
not  in  the  general  way  alone.  General  good  wishes  are  not  Avithout 
their  use  ;  but  special  prayers  are  needful.  I  do  not  think  that  we 
sufficiently  search  out  and  know  our  friends.  We  are  accustomed 
to  take  the  measure  of  men,  and  of  their  relations,  too  much  from 
their  connection  with  physical  things.  We  are  apt  to  judge  of 
rnen  by  their  standing  on  the  street ;  by  their  effectiveness ;  by  their 
honesty  and  reliableness  one  with  another  ;  by  their  scholarship, 
and  their  standing  as  related  to  scholars  ;  by  what  they  have  done, 
and  what  they  promise  to  do.  We  specialize,  we  partialize,  we  limit, 
our  conception  of  men.  But  no  man  is  known  to  you  until  you  put 
him  in  a  place  where  you  can  see  the  whole  of  him,  and  where  you 
can  see,  also,  the  prophecy  of  that  which  he  is  to  become.  And  that 
is  the  point  of  prayer. 

When  you  pray  for  men,  you  never  pray  for  them  as  farmers,  as 
merchants,  as  mechanics,  as  bankers,  as  engineers,  as  drivers.  You 
never  pray  for  them  as  clerks,  or  confidential  clerks.  You  drop  all 
that  which  concerns  their  occupation.  You  pray  for  their  manhood. 
You  pray  for  them  as  you  would  think  of  them  at  a  funeral.  You 
pray  for  them  as  you  see  them  in  the  light  of  eternity.  You  pray 
for  them  as  in  the  presence  of  God. 

We  love  to  take  photographs  of  our  friends  by  the  natural  sun, 
and  carry  them  with  us ;  and  a  man,  having  such  a  likeness,  says, 
"  I  have  a  true  picture :  the  sun  does  not  lie."  And  how  much 
better  it  is  for  you  to  take  spiritual  photographs  of  your  friends, 
from  the  Sun  of  righteousness,  and  bear  with  you  that  inward 
resemblance  which  God  will  give  to  you  when  you  think  of  them  in 
the  hour  of  prayer,  at  the  footstool  of  divine  mercy !  How  much 
larger  a  sense  it  will  give  of  the  richness  and  value  of  those  who 
are  around  about  you !  Then  you  will  be  able  to  think  of  men 
somewhat  as  they  think  of  themselves  in  their  best  moments. 

We  are  to  pray  for  all  that  are  despised.  It  is  wholesome 
that  from  day  to  day  we  should  send  our  mercies  out,  as  it  were.  It 
is  wholesome  that  we  should  have  something  to  compare  our  lot 
with.  As  sweet  is  better  to  our  taste  when  we  have  taken  some- 
thing sour ;  so  joy  is  better  for  having  the  touch  of  sorrow  near  to 
it.  In  proportion  as  we  are  prospered  and  strong,  we  need  not  to 
forget  the  hole  or  the  pit  from  which  we  were  dug.  One  of  the 
worst  things  connected  with  prosperity  is,  that  it  tends  to  separate 
men  from  their  companions  in  affliction ;  to  make  them  feel  that 
they  have  come  into  circumstances  where  they  do  not  need  others. 


FBAYEB  FOB  0THEB8.  499 

There  is  an  unfortunate  word  wliicli  expresses  tliis — namely,  inde- 
pendence. A  man  is  apt  to  feel  that  when  he  has  prospered  he  is 
independent  in  his  circumstances.  The  worst  thing  in  tlie  world 
for  a  man  is  to  be  consciously  independent  of  his  fellow  msn.  He 
who  comes  to  a  point  where  he  does  not  think  that  he  needs  others, 
or  that  they  need  him,  so  that  he  is  cut  off  from  them,  is  in  a  de- 
plorable state.  Like  a  bough  severed  from  a  tree,  or  a  tree  severed 
from  its  root,  is  a  man  who,  being  prospered,  feels  that  he  is  inde- 
pendent of  others.  He  is  cut  away  from  the  great  tree  of  human 
society. 

We  are  to  pray  for  all  those  who  are  in  peril  and  distress ;  for  all 
those  who  are  shut  up  in  various  ways.  Prayer  for  such  people 
keeps  alive  pity.  It  deepens  humanity.  It  more  and  more  swells  in 
our  bosom  that  godlike  spirit  by  which  all  helpfulness  is  issued 
through  all  the  universe. 

Then  we  are  to  pray  for  our  enemies.  That  duty  is  made 
special.  It  is  made  one  of  the  fundamental  evidences  of  the  rela- 
tionship of  God  himself  God  is  one  who  forgives  those  who  forget 
him  or  remember  him  only  to  resist  his  will  and  defy  his  authority. 
He  "  maketh  his  sun  to  rise  on  the  evil  and  on  the  good,  and  send- 
eth  rain  on  the  just  and  on  the  unjust."  And  he  says  to  us,  "  Be  ye 
perfect  like  me — perfect  as  I  am — namely,  in  spreading  your  boun- 
ties out  upon  those  who  do  not  like  you."  Read  that  command, 
especially,  in  the  fifth  chapter  of  Matthew.  You  that  are  perplexed 
about  the  divinity  of  Christ ;  you  that  do  not  understand  the  doc- 
trine of  Election  or  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity ;  you  that  are  very 
much  troubled  on  the  subject  of  the  atonement,  and  the  relations 
of  vicarious  suffering  to  everlasting  justice ;  you  who  are  at  a  loss  to 
understand  the  subject  of  affection  as  it  relates  to  God — here  is  a 
doctrine  that  is  a  great  deal  harder  than  any  of  those.  It  is  in  the 
forty-fourth  verse  of  this  chapter.  It  is  the  language  of  your 
Master : 

"  I  say  unto  you.  Love  your  enemies." 

You  say,  "  How  can  I  love  a  man  who  is  wicked  ?"  That  is 
your  own  lookout.  Here  is  the  passage.  "  How  can  I  love  hate- 
fulness  ?"     God  loves  hateful  men — not  hatefulwess. 

"Jjove  your  enemies." 

You  say,  "  I  will  love  them  when  they  are  good."  But  that  is 
your  version,  not  God's. 

*'  Love  your  enemies." 

We  are  to  feel  toward  them  just  as  the  spring  feels  toward  frozen 
ground,  when  it  comes  from  the  south,  warm,  moist,  generous,  and 
unlocking,  and,  by  that  which  it  brings  from  the  Equator,  releases 
the  frigid  north  from  its  thrall  and  its  death.     Out  of  your  warm 


500  PBAYEB  FOB  OTHERS. 

life  breatlie  that  upon  your  enemies  which  shall  bring  them  to  tlieir 
true  selves.  They  are  human  beings;  they  are  sentient;  they  are 
immortal ;  and  you  stand  over  against  this  command,  laid  upon  you 
as  the  price  of  your  fealty  to  God. 

"  Love  your  enemies,  bless  them  that  curse  you." 

"  He  did  say  that  of  me,  did  he  ?  Well,  I  will  remember  it.  It 
will  not  be  long  before  I  get  a  chance  to  pay  that  back  to  him;  raid 
then  he  will  see  what  it  is  tc  say  such  things  about  me."  That  is 
the  way  most  of  us  Christians  fulfill  the  command  of  God.  "  Did 
he  say  that  ?  I  know  something  about  him ;  and  you  see  if  I  do 
not  make  it  tell."     That  is  what  we  say ;  but  God  says, 

"  Love  your  enemies,  bless  them  that  curse  you." 

It  is  very  hard  for  a  man  to  curse  a  great  while  into  the  heart 
of  a  blessing ;  and  if  you  will  go  on  blessing  and  blessing  and  bless- 
ing men  who  curse  you,  it  will  not  be  long  before  you  will  find  that 
they  cannot  curse.     The  cure  for  cursing  is  blessing. 

"  Do  good  to  them  that  hate  you." 

Not  once,  not  twice,  but  a  steady  stream. 

"  Pray  for  them  which  despitef  ully  use  you,  and  persecute  you." 

That  is,  pray  for  men  who  are  saying  all  manner  of  little  mean 
things  about  you;  men  who  are  snapping  at  you,  pinching  you,  jab- 
bing you,  taking  every  advantage  of  you,  following  you  up,  morn- 
ing, noon,  and  night — always  doing  it,  here,  there  and  everywhere. 
When  they  have  done  all  they  can  against  you,  what  have  you  a 
right  to  do  with  them  ?     Kill  them  ?     Pray  for  them ! 

There,  my  friends,  men  and  women,  is  a  Christianity  that  you 
will  find  it  harder  to  practice  than  all  that  is  in  creeds  or  confess- 
ions of  faith.  There  is  no  mystery  like  the  mystery  of  the  human 
heart.  And  when  you  undertake  to  live  this  doctrine,  you  will  say 
that  it  is  the  hardest  thing  to  live  in  the  New  Testament.  When 
you  can  say  in  truth,  before  God,  "  I  do  love  my  enemies,  I  do  bless 
those  that  curse  me,  and  I  do  good  to  them  that  hate  me,  and.  pray 
for  them  which  despitefully  use  me  and  persecute  me,"  you  will  not 
need  anybody  to  teach  you  the  nature  of  God.  He  will  be  in  you, 
a^d  will  dwell  in  you,  and  your  own  spirit  will  interpret  all  things. 

We  are  to  pray,  not  only  for  those  who  are  near  to  us  and  dear 
to  us,  and  our  fellow  men  in  trouble,  and  our  enemies,  but  also  for 
those  who  are  in  representative  positions  and  under  temptations,  as 
well  as  weighed  down  by  the  labors  and  cares  of  office.  I  am  afraid 
that  in  our  land  the  spirit  of  democracy  has  run  to  such  excess  thiit 
veneration  and  benevolence  and  humanity  are  almost  gone.  "We 
are  accustomed  to  think  of  officers  as  the  favored  of  the  people ;  as 
persons  placed  in  high  positions  for  honor  or  support.  We  are  ac- 
customed to  think  that  we  may  say  what  we  please  about  them,  and 


PBATEE  FOB  OTHERS.  501 

do  what  we  please  to  them.  How  seldom  do  we  find  Christian 
churches  and  households  and  individual  hearts  hearing  these  men's 
burdens — praying  for  the  judge;  for  the  lawyer ;  for  dynasties;  for 
representatives  in  the  legislature  or  in  congress  ;  for  Governors  ;  for 
the  President,  and  the  members  of  the  Government  associated  with 
him !  We  inveigh  against  them,  but  we  do  not  pray  for  them.  We 
hold  them  up  to  censure.  We  judge  them  severely,  and  unsympa- 
thetically.  If  they  are  of  our  party,  we  defend  them  ;  if  they  are 
not,  we  condemn  them.  We  scarcely  pretend  to  do  justice.  It  is  a 
partisan,  political  matter.  And  yet,  if  there  be  anything  laid  down 
explicitly  in  the  Bible,  it  is  that  we  are  to  pray  for  all  who  are  in 
authority — for  kings  and  magistrates;  for  all  that  bear  rule.  I 
think  that  *if  we  prayed  more  for  them,  the  effect  would  be  most 
salntary.  That  is  to  say,  in  a  nation  which  professes  to  be  Chris- 
tian, as  does  this  ;  in  a  nation  filled  with  churches,  like  ours,  if  the 
hearts  of  the  great  mass  of  Christian  men  Avere  once  a  week  drawn 
up  before  God,  in  sincere,  devout,  earnest,  sympathetic  prayer  for  all 
in  authority,  I  think  that  directly  and  indirectly  there  would  be 
exerted  an  influence  on  these  men,  and  that  they  would  be  more 
honorable  men  than  they  now  are.  We  have  had  the  most  lament- 
able instances  of  the  deterioration  and  corruption  of  magistrates; 
and  it  seems  to  me  that  among  other  causes  is  the  fact  that  Chris- 
tian men  do  not  enough  bear  them  up  in  the  arms  of  their  faith  ; 
that  they  are  not  prayed  for  as  they  ought  to  be. 

Once  more.  We  cannot  fulfill  the  spirit  nor  the  letter  of  this 
command  if  Ave  pray  only  for  our  own  sect.  We  are  to  pray  for  all 
men,  good  or  bad,  high  or  low,  in  authority  or  out  of  authority,  and 
for  all  Christian  men.  We  do  pray  for  all  who  love  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  "  according  to  our  faith  and  order."  That  is  the  modern 
phrase.  It  is  supposed  that  Avhen  the  Methodist  prays,  he  prays  for 
all  God's  good  Methodists ;  that  when  the  Presbyterian  prays,  he 
prays  for  all  good  Presbyterians  ;  that  when  the  Congregationalist 
prays,  he  prays  for  all  those  who  adopt  that  good  form  of  church 
goA'ernment  Avhich  the  Congrcgationalists  have  adopted ;  and  that 
Avhen  the  Baptist  prays,  he  prays  for  all  good  Baptist  Christians.  It 
is  natural  that  one's  sympathy  should  be  strongest  toAvard  those 
Avho  are  of  his  oAvn  denomination ;  and  I  do  not  say  that  you  should 
not  pray  more  for  your  own  denomination  than  for  any  other;  but 
Avhile  you  do  that,  you  ought  not  to  forget  that  God  has  other-sheep 
than  those  Avhich  are  in  your  flock.  So  far  from  feeling  sorry,  I 
rejoice  when  I  see  good  men  in  other  denominations.  I  rejoice  ex- 
ceedingly Avhen  I  find  better  men  than  I  expect  in  any  denom- 
ination.   I  rejoice  Avhen  I  find  in  the  Koman  Catholic  Church  men 


502  FEATEB  FOE  OTHEES.  ' 

of  education  and  refinement  and  eminent  piety.  When  umonf  the 
Roman  Catholics,  whom  I  was  tanght  to  regard  as  the  scales  of  tlie 
gi-eat  dragon,  almost,  I  find  sincere,  simple,  sweet,  humble,  devout, 
conscientious,  good  men,  it  gives  me  unfeigned  gladness.  I  am 
always  sorry  to  hear  something  bad  that  I  do  not  expect  about  any- 
body. I  am  glad  to  hear  about  persons  that  I  do  not  think  well 
of  something  that  makes  me  think  better  of  them.  I  am  always 
glad  to  hear  of  a  denomination  to  which  I  do  not  belong,  something 
which  shall  give  me  reason  to  think  them  to  be  better  than  I  have 
been  accustomed  to  suppose  they  were. 

Now,  if  we  were  taught,  not  to  look  suspiciously  upon  those  of 
other  denominations  besides  our  own  ;  if  we  were  taught  to  tolerate 
and  sympathize  with  those  who  differ  from  us  in  belief ;  if  we  were 
taught  to  bear  up  in  our  thoughts  those  who  have  erred  from  the 
faith  with  a  spirit  of  benevolence  and  kindness  ;  if  we  were  taught 
to  pray  for  those  who  are  snared  in  the  meshes  of  false  systems  ;  if 
we  were  taught  to  make  supplication  even  in  behalf  of  those  who 
not  only  oppose  our  doctrine,  but  hinder  our  Christian  labors,  do 
not  you  suppose  we  should  begin  to  see  the  workings  of  that  charity 
out  of  which  the  millennial  day  is  to  come  ?  "We  never  shall  come 
together  in  the  matter  of  church  government  or  creeds.  If  there  is 
to  be  a  unity  of  the  people  of  God  on  earth,  so  that  at  last  there 
shall  be  one  hope,  one  Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism,  and  sub- 
stantially one  brotherhood  of  Christians,  it  will  be  because  the  hearts 
of  Christian  men  so  flow  to  each  other  that  common  allegiance  to 
the  Saviour  will  be  more  to  them  than  all  the  special  differences 
which  separate  them. 

In  every  church,  it  seems  to  me,  there  should  be  prayer  made, 
not  only  for  the  unfortunate  ones — those  who  do  not  belong  to  the 
Church — but  for  our  fellow-Christians  everywhere,  and  of  every 
name,  as  though  we  believed  that  God  looks  upon  them  with  the 
same  favor  with  which  he  looks  upon  us.  Thus  we  should  draw  into 
the  discordant  camp  of  theology  and.  ecclesiasticism  elements  of 
peace  which,  growing,  shall  by  and  by  bring  in  the  last  great  day. 

Christian  brethren,  I  leave  Avitli  you  this  thought,  oi  prayer  for 
others,  which  comes  very  near  to  your  households ;  which  tends  to 
bring  you  into  sympathy  with  all  those  who  stand  in  Christian  fel- 
lowship with  you,  to  reveal  your  duties,  and  by  the  same  -light  to 
reveal  your  deficiencies  ;  to  unite  the  churches ;  to  so  harmonize  dis- 
cordant denominations,  that  his  prayer  may  be  fulfilled  who  prayed, 
"  That  they  all  may  be  one ;  as  thou.  Father,  art  in  me,  and  1  in 
thee,  that  they  also  may  be  one  in  us." 

So  we  shall  bring  to  pass  that  great  desire  of  the  soul  of  J  esua 


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1   1012  01092  9752 


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